"Blessed are you, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has not made me a woman." -- Morning Blessings, Artscroll Siddur, p. 12.

I'm supposed to say that each morning. If I were a woman, I would recite this instead: "Blessed are you, Lord our God, Ruler of...

As our nation reels and begins to recover from this week's attacks, our religious traditions can offer wisdom and comfort. Below are five primary sources from the Jewish canon. I hope you find some of them helpful in your own grieving and processing. May God protect the wounded, help our...

What is the realest thing you know?

A few weeks ago, I posted this question as my Facebook status. These were some of the answers my friends wrote:

• Nature
• My family's love and support
• Breath
• Friends
• Death
• Diapers (from a new father)

Newtown, Auruora, Tuscon, Littleton: hearing the names of these picturesque American cities once evoked images of the American dream. Now they evoke an American nightmare -- mass gun violence. The wounds in Newtown are the freshest and probably the most horrific, but the scars of gun violence run deep throughout...

This sermon was delivered at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, an Orthodox Synagogue in New York City, days after Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast.

This is a powerful moment. It's our first time together in large numbers as a community after witnessing and experiencing the devastation caused by Hurricane...

The following is the second in a series of excerpts from Uri L'Tzedek's "Rising in the Night: Compassion and Justice in a Time of Despair," a collection of reflections, poems and calls to action intended to bring mindfulness and social justice to the experience of Tisha B'Av.

"Alas!

Thousands of American Jews were shocked and horrified to hear of the riots aimed at African refugees and migrants in South Tel Aviv a few weeks ago. A few hundred Israelis, incited by lashon hara, evil speech, marched through immigrant neighborhoods, chanting racist slogans, smashing stores and even...

Creator of the universe, divine energy that flows through all things, source of love, wisdom and compassion... Hi, it's me. Back again.

In a few days, I will be ordained as a rabbi.

It's been a journey over many years. Four in YCT Rabbinical School. Thirty in this world....

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...

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...

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...

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...

"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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

"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...

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...

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"...