The period of 49 days between the holidays of Passover and Pentecost (Pesach and Shavuot) which we find ourselves in is very special to me, since it is when I…
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Where am I from? As perennial immigrants, Jews have been asking themselves this question from time immemorial. For many scions of families who survived the Holocaust (as mine did), this…
The Passover Haggadah offers the traditional Exodus origin story basing itself on a rabbinic understanding of the Hebrew Bible. One of the most powerful sayings in the Rabbinic compilations of…
The Jewish calendar generally associates spring with the holiday of Passover, but since the calendar fluctuates with the tides of the moon, this year the beginning of spring coincides with…
More than a week ago, my rabbinic colleague Ed Klein died at his home in Queens New York. I knew Ed and his passing is a great loss to the…
In the middle of frigid February, the secular calendar dedicates a holiday for lovers, Valentine’s Day. When I came back to North America after fourteen years in Israel with my…
I remember Jerusalem. I remember Jerusalem twenty years ago, when weekend after weekend the morning news started with another bus blowing up, another mass shooting, another bulldozing of someone’s home….
The Jewish holiday of Sukkot began as a harvest holiday, an event celebrated since time immemorial all over the world and in many different cultures. Because the exact time of…
Like most all of you, I find our government’s response to the refugee crisis to be utterly despicable. The world is engulfed in a refugee crisis the likes of which…