If God had provided for our needs in the wilderness for 40 years -- dayenu!
If God had fed us manna -- dayenu!
It's arguably the most famous Passover Jewish song. Each year, sing-song verses and repetitive chorus stick in my head almost as long as the matzah sticks in...
0 Comments | Posted March 21, 2012 | 9:03 AM
Dear readers, do I have a hot stock opportunity for you.
Why invest in boring stocks like Exxon, McDonalds, or Lockheed Martin when you could invest in one of America's hottest growth sectors -- the private prison industry!
Here are 7 great reasons, quoted directly from the Corrections Corporation of...
6 Comments | Posted March 7, 2012 | 10:12 AM
The concluding chapter of the Scroll of Esther is three verses long. Two of them, not surprisingly, celebrate the triumphs of the Jews. The other verse reads: "And the king Ahasuerus laid a tax upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea."
What a strange ending to our...
5 Comments | Posted February 23, 2012 | 5:12 PM
I bought my first iPhone in January. After only a few short hours, I was hooked by the sleek design, ease of use, and power. After a few weeks, I couldn't remember life without it. And then, on my iPhone, I read the following email from SumOfUs:
"Every day, tens...
0 Comments | Posted November 19, 2011 | 1:00 AM
"Welcome to the Waldorf Astoria," said the jail guard as he showed me the room I would sleep in, my prison issue bedding (top sheet, bottom sheet, two pillowcases, no pillow) and the vacuum-packed kosher meals that had been prepared for me. This was the beginning of the three days...
0 Comments | Posted October 6, 2011 | 6:12 PM
It is dusk on Yom Kippur. As the holiest day of the Jewish year comes to a close, the Neilah service arrives. Neilah means closing, and the Jewish tradition understands that this fifth and final prayer service occurs when the gates of prayer begin to shut. In the liturgy, we begin with...
0 Comments | Posted September 8, 2011 | 5:22 PM
For most Americans, Sept. 11, 2001 was a day we can never forget. Where we were when we heard, the images on TV, the fear in the voices of our loved ones, the horrible loss of life: every time the anniversary rolls around, we encounter our own traumatic experiences.
...0 Comments | Posted April 18, 2011 | 10:38 AM
The Passover seder is Jewish drama. Over the evening, a tale of slavery and liberation, despair and hope, narrow straits and open possibilities unfolds. We experience this drama through food. We lift high the matzah, the bread of affliction, for all to see; we taste the painful maror to remind...
0 Comments | Posted April 4, 2011 | 10:00 PM
Forms. Number-Crunching. Headaches. Worry. Going through the year's spending and income and applying it to the nitty-gritty of our tax code often feels like the least religious, least spiritual activity possible. While doing our taxes can be a source of frayed nerves and aggravation, they can also be a spiritual...
0 Comments | Posted March 21, 2011 | 8:10 PM
"Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked ... ?" Genesis, 18:23
These words echoed in my spirit as I watched the images of the tsunami strike in Japan, and as the situation continues to unfold it evokes profound spiritual anxiety in me. How do we make sense...
0 Comments | Posted January 31, 2011 | 11:40 AM
It sounds like a dream: a Muslim woman wearing a full head covering, laughing and joking with an orthodox rabbi as they paint a mural of Run-DMC for Brooklyn schoolchildren. But on Martin Luther King Day, 2011, that dream was real.
On that day, over 50 Muslims and Jews gathered...
0 Comments | Posted October 14, 2010 | 11:14 PM
Coming on the heels of the tragic suicide of Rutger's University Freshman Tyler Clementi and the arrest of nine Bronx thugs accused of brutally torturing gay people in their community, Joseph Paladino teamed up with Rabbi Yehuda Levin, an extremist orthodox rabbi, to deliver a hate-filled speech opposing "homosexual agenda"...
0 Comments | Posted September 17, 2010 | 7:22 PM
It's afternoon on Tuesday, September 7. The Jewish new year, Rosh Hashana, is hours away. I have sermons to write, classes to prepare, family and friends to call, and my own spiritual preparations to do. I am not doing any of those things, however. Instead I am riding the subway...
0 Comments | Posted July 28, 2010 | 5:27 AM
The Talmud tells a story about a miracle man and mischief-maker named Honi: One day, Honi was walking down a road and saw an old man planting a carob tree. Honi asked the man how many years it would take for the carob tree to bear fruit. The man replied...
0 Comments | Posted July 12, 2010 | 12:09 PM
Is there more to Jewish food than bagels and Manischewitz? The new Jewish Food Movement, a loose confederation of farmers, religious leaders, health and nutrition buffs, organizers, philosophers, activists, and consumers, says yes. Drawing on deep Jewish religious traditions and values, the movement is inspiring a new generation of Jews...

0 Comments | Posted April 3, 2012 | 4:31 PM