You Are SO Going To Like This
At the end of a long day, I watched “You Are SO Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah,” the new movie starring Adam Sandler, Idina Menzel, among other greats. I […] The post You Are SO Going To Like This...
View ArticleIn the New Year 5784
On Rosh Hashanah, we’ll greet each other with wishes for a Happy New Year. It’s a time filled with hopeful expectations that a new beginning will be fresh and sweet. […] The post In the New Year 5784...
View ArticleBound as One: A Rally for Israel
Sukkot is one of my favorite holidays. It’s part of the season called Z’man Simchateinu, the “Season of our Joy.” Sukkot is purposely joyful to follow Yom Kippur’s solemn mood. […] The post Bound as...
View ArticleFrom the Beginning, Again
There is no justification. For the attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists there is no justification. It begins with the fact that in 2005, despite many Israelis who wanted to […] The post From the...
View ArticleWe Built a Fence and a Friendship
In the Middle East, there is no more room for hate and no path to peace through vengeance. Though Houston is more than 7000 miles away from Israel and Gaza, […] The post We Built a Fence and a...
View ArticleFrom Lawlessness to Peace
In last week’s Torah portion, Noah, we read about the flood that came after God saw that the earth was filled with “lawlessness.” In Torah, the word “lawlessness” is a […] The post From Lawlessness to...
View ArticleTo Learn & To Teach About Israel
Don’t drink from a fire hose. It’s not just good sense, it’s also a good metaphor. We can’t extinguish the burning fire of misinformation, lack of Jewish education, or personal […] The post To Learn...
View ArticleA Blue and White Box
That blue and white box is still a vivid image in my memory. I’m sure it is in yours, too. That blue and white box, a “pushke,” in Yiddish, symbolized […] The post A Blue and White Box appeared first...
View ArticleIt’s Your Birthright
Those who were able to attend the march in Washington, D.C., absorbed and digested more than they could have imagined. Throngs of people, some 290,000, plus leaders of our country […] The post It’s...
View ArticleVertical Neighborhoods
After October 7th, I wrote about the fence that my Muslim neighbor and I had to fix between our houses when it broke and fell in a windstorm. It was […] The post Vertical Neighborhoods appeared first...
View ArticleThe Lions of Judah Emerge
Last weekend, Congregation Beth Israel hosted Rabbi Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D., as our scholar-in-residence. Just one of our multiple scholar events during the year, Rabbi Cohen, a lawyer, former dean of...
View ArticleComing and Going in Difficult Times
This week’s Torah portion opens with the words, “Bo el paro,” or “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that […] The post Coming and Going in Difficult...
View ArticleBring Them All Home
This week’s Torah portion is “Yitro,” or Jethro. This is the portion that includes the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20; but in Exodus 18, Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, a Midianite, offers […] The post...
View ArticleIt’s a Redeemable World After All
In Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet, in Hebrew, we learn, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl. 1:9). It’s not a complacent statement nor an apathetic one. King Solomon, who is […] The post It’s a...
View ArticleWhen Our Hearts are Moved
When our hearts are moved we’re inclined to do so much. It’s just as our Torah portion opens in Exodus 25, “Tell the Israelite people to bring Me Gifts; you […] The post When Our Hearts are Moved...
View ArticleAt Home with Humanity
In the Talmud, when the rabbis didn’t know how to settle the law for the community, they said, “Tzei ul’meid,” go and learn. In effect, go and see what the […] The post At Home with Humanity appeared...
View ArticleThe Mask We Wear
Rabbi Eugene Borowitz, Ph.D., of HUC-JIR, wrote in his book, The Mask Jews Wear: The Self-Deceptions of American Jewry (1973), “The men (sic) of the Bible and the rabbis of […] The post The Mask We...
View ArticleSharing New Roles in Jewish Life
On Monday, March 24, 2025, I’ll be installed as CCAR President at the annual CCAR Convention for a two-year term. Following years on the CCAR Board and as an officer, […] The post Sharing New Roles in...
View ArticleFinding Holiness in Uncivil Times
The book of Leviticus isn’t generally a favorite book among Bible readers. If it’s any indication, Hollywood hasn’t recreated any of its scenes like it did from Genesis and Exodus. […] The post Finding...
View ArticleFaith is the Future
Passover is coming. More than 550 days since October 7, 2023, and loved ones we expected to be at the table with us will not be there, again. In Israel, […] The post Faith is the Future appeared first...
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