He's a bit too humble to admit it. But he may become known as one of the great social justice rabbis of our time.

As his rabbinical intern, I have the unique fortune of meeting with him every Monday. During our hour together, he patiently answers all kinds of...

Lives filled with time-pressure underscore the potential of quieter moments to renew us. Spiritually, we have just entered such a moment of relative quiet. It is replete with possibility.

The seven weeks, starting on the second day of Passover and continuing through the day that precedes

Biblical literalists often cite passages in the Torah that condemn gay sex. Sodom and Gomorrah. Leviticus 18:22. Leviticus 20:13. And so forth.

By these same absurdly literalist standards, we should likewise put to death people who break the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32-36) and stone disobedient children (Deuteronomy 21:18-21). Of course, literalists...

What does it mean to "mobilize" a movement for social justice in the Internet Age? The word "mobilization" has strong associations for the Boomer Generation, when organizing hundreds to march, rally or take part in a sit-in was the visible manifestation of social justice activism.

But to...

As a middle school student, I remember donating my weekly allowance to charity. Week after week, I would go into my father's study, return the money he had given to me only hours before, and ask him to instead write a check to a charity that I cared about. Some...

'Tis the season for family gatherings. Two weeks ago, Jews gathered around the lights of the menorah, and this week Christians gather around trees illuminated with light. Many families come together in celebration, enjoying traditional holiday foods and beverages, whether latkes and slivovitz...

The word "sacred" is applied so ubiquitously that its meaning is seldom consistent, even from one conversation to the next. Why is something sacred? Where is the sacred? When is it sacred? And the most difficult question for many of us who ascribe to a religious tradition, who or what...

Memory is innate to our beings. When our grandparents tell us stories about their homes in other countries, we remember. When our parents talk about their childhoods in great detail, we remember. When our siblings remind us of moments we would rather forget, we remember. Our memories transcend the material....

One evening, I found myself conspicuously ignoring two of etiquette's basic rules, talking about both religion and politics with a good friend. Veering from one topic to the other, we eventually found ourselves ensconced in a discussion about theology. I was working to articulate my belief in an...

At a moment when I would otherwise be reviewing Yom Kippur teachings and preparing spiritually for the most sacred day in the Jewish calendar, I instead feel called as an American Jew to respond to the abominable, Islamophobic advertisements in the New York City subways.

Islamophobia is...

Rosh Hashanah is traditionally referred to as the "Day of Remembrance" in reference to the hope that God will sustain our lives in the coming year out of recognition of our ancestors' merit, if not our own.

Yet Rosh Hashanah is also known as a central point...

I sometimes feel challenged by the language of traditional High Holiday liturgy. Though I believe in an impersonal God, many of the images and metaphors that the prayers evoke are tangible and even anthropomorphic in nature.

To me, the most vivid and vexing metaphor for God is found...

One of my greatest joys in working with Eboo Patel is watching him think. He is the sharpest wit in most of the rooms he enters, and if you manage to catch him with a surprising or unusual question after a public talk or small-group gathering, you can...

An especially compelling response to my piece, "Finding Language to Describe God," came from a person who asked to be identified only by his initials, BD. Dividing his response into three parts, he begins with a fundamental question: "Language to describe our most basic thoughts often eludes us;...

Three weeks ago, I found myself sitting on a junk in the middle of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. My wife, Mirah, and I were fortunate enough to be spending some time in Southeast Asia and were settling into a two-day tour of the Bay with some fellow...

Language to describe God remains elusive, even when our understandings of God (or understandings of why God does not exist, for atheist friends) are most real. Spiritual experiences, as well as language to describe the world in which we live, are difficult to find words for.

This has been an...

The Jewish tradition has been re-articulated in response to many intellectual revolutions, from the rapid spread of Hellenistic thought by Alexander the Great 2,300 years ago to the invention of the movable-type printing press just half a millennium ago. Yet contemporary Jewish leaders are still working, and often struggling, to...

On May 2, President Barack Obama declared: "...by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 2012 as Jewish American Heritage Month. I call upon all Americans to visit www.JewishHeritageMonth.gov to learn more about the...

Religious communities are never the same once they reach America. In my view, they often become even more remarkable.

As a third-generation American Jew, it is at times even challenging for me to think of Judaism apart from the American experience. In spite of hardships early on for our...

After the joyful Seders and family gatherings have ended and we have entered more deeply into the Passover holiday, I often feel jarred by the Counting of the Omer.

Traditional Jews mark this time before Shavuot through abstinence: foregoing weddings, cutting one's hair and even listening to music. Instead, they...