You May Never Have the Time
Author
5766
One of the most painful rabbinic duties is to try to offer comfort after a doctor has informed someone that he has a terminal illness.
Jewish Values, Jewish Deeds
Author
5765
Almost every Jew is familiar with the most terrifying moment in all of Jewish ritual practice. We prepare for it, knowing that it’s inevitable. We study, chant, pray, sing. As the dreaded moment approaches, we break into a sweat, smile bravely, as our heartbeat approaches Jane Fonda speed. Finally, the gabbai calls us up for an aliyah, one of the seven so honored by reciting the blessings before and after the reading of the Torah on Shabbat morning.
Between Animal Rights and Human Wrongs
Author
5765
An ideological battle is being waged between those who would argue that animals have rights equal to humans (or almost equal to human rights) and those who would insist that people have the right to use animals in any way they would choose. Between those two extremes there appears to be no discussion, dialogue, or any interest in a deeper understanding. One side views the other as tofu vegbos and they, in turn, see their opponents and blood-thirsty rednecks.
Welcoming the Stranger
Author
5765
Well, the statistics are in, and the news isn’t good. Hate crimes, it seems, are more popular than ever. Perhaps it’s because the economy isn’t as robust as we would like it to be; perhaps it’s because we live in an age of rapid social change and there are people who resent the changes and feel powerless because of them. Or perhaps the rising violence is because there are simply people willing to do evil and lacking the self-restraint (or the communal restraint) to stop them.
Choosing Judaism
Author
5765
I remember a regular spring ritual when I was still a congregational rabbi. The event took place on a Sunday morning, as I and thirty eager people would drive down to Laguna Beach. Not to play volleyball, and not to bask in the glorious California sunshine. Our purpose was much more sacred and venerable than all that. These 30 people were among the 100 students who had completed my Introduction to Judaism class, and were now intent on converting to Judaism.
A Torah that Mirrors Real Life
Author
5765
After the Israelites sin at Baal-Pe’or, God lashes out in anger, ordering Moses to "Take all the heads of the people and have them publicly impaled." Before Moses can act on God's command, a leading Israelite named Zimri and a leading Midianite woman named Cozbi enter the sacred site of the Tent of Meeting and there, before the entire people, begin to copulate. This arrogant escalation of sin inflames Pinhas, the leader of the Levitical guards, who grabs a spear and impales the two sinners.
Religion: A Time-Space Continuum
Author
5765
One of the sad realities of life in the suburbs is that every neighborhood looks just like every other neighborhood: If it's not a home, it's a mall. If it's not a mall, it's a shopping center. Everything we build in the burbs is beautiful, clean, and lacking personality. Spatial distinctions, where one city ends and the next one begins, are visible only on maps or signs, because, frankly, they all look alike. The same malls, homes, developments, and roads impose a deadening sameness over the vast tracts of American space.
God of All Breath
Author
5765
There is a place beyond which words cannot go. Try as we might, words can only allude to our most deeply felt emotions: Wonder, marvel, awe. Designed to help us communicate about ideas, facts, and values, words lose their power when it comes to the depths of human feelings, to an almost mystical connection to other living things and to life itself. Words get us to the shore, but to move to the depths we have to discard our words for other modes of expression.
Serving God, Serving People
Author
5765
What does it mean to serve God? Often, when we think of religious people, we think of those who have a zealous attachment to God, a strong sense of what God wants from them and from humanity. Unfortunately, their energy and devotion can sometimes translate into imposing their preferences on the rest of the world, as though their religious passion is the only possible measure of right and wrong. Matters a few define as “spiritual”, or issues of death and afterlife, rise high on their agendas, and force their way into public discourse intrusively and excessively.
God’s Healing Angels
Author
5765
Every culture identified insiders and outsiders, those select few who represent communal ideals and the despised few whose differences make them seem threatening to the rest of us. For the vast majority, straddled between the ideals and the rejects, life is an effort to seem more like the former and to distance us from the latter. The emotional security of the majority seems to require construing some unfortunates as demons, rather than as fellow human beings simply trying their best to get along.