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Whether the Jordanian government likes it or not, the Jordanian-Palestinian agreement and the mood of the people regarding Jerusalem require it to tak...
Health, well-being and, ultimately, collective redemption will come from home, family and land being part of a sacred system where each feeds the others. This is the heart of an agrarian Torah.
"She's not white, she's Jewish." Sometimes I would like to say this about myself, but it is untrue. I am a proud Jew and a proud white person, but that's not so easy to say. Is there reason for white people to be proud of their race after this country's legacy of racism?
Bring your entire being to the service of God and your fellow creatures. Leave no part of yourself outside. Leave no piece of yourself invisible. Be passionate in the service you offer as rabbis.
Stephen Hawking's boycot of a major academic conference in Israel pales in comparison to the words and deeds of Heidegger and Chomsky. Yet, it reminds us that the smartest people do not always have the right answers.
The Torah is not really a story for kids. Many sections of it are at least PG-13, if not R or even MA. But those stories, while complicated and open to various interpretation, regard sex and sexuality as part of a bigger picture including societal status, power dynamics, fidelity and purity.
According to Jewish tradition, the upcoming festival of Shavuot is the anniversary of the giving of the Torah and the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Oddly though, we find no clear link in the Bible between the Shavuot festival and the giving of the Torah.
When tragedy, illness and accidents occur, our worldview morphs immediately. Stability is shaken as reality turns upside down. The Omer says we must go slowly.
I started my journey in my 20s in Jerusalem. I didn't know anything about spirituality. I wanted to have answers. I wanted to "do it right." So I learned for a full 10 years. Along the way, I acquired a lot of knowledge. But I was so busy fitting in that I didn't notice that I had departed from myself.
On Shavuot night, thousands of Jews will place learning at the center of Jewish life, encountering texts and ideas late into the night, across Jewish practices and ideologies. What does it mean to take Jewish learning into the year?
Sometimes, being in the right place at the right time, whether by coincidence or not, can lead to macro change. I don't know what is going to happen at the Western Wall in the future, but the times they are certainly a-changing.
My mother had dementia. She would call me crying that she had no shoes. When I got to her apartment, it was strewn with shoes, but she was out somewhere, wandering, lost. Every time I forget something, I shudder, sure it's the first sign of dementia.
Just like Judaism is a religion that can exist independently from Jewish ethnicity or Jewish culture, Islam is a religion, and even though Muslims are ethnically and racially varied, there really is such a thing as a Muslim culture that can exist separately from Islam.
Instead of fighting over the different forms of prayer, let us pray over the different forms of fighting, and ask that we reunite as one, with our hearts and ears, in respect and in dignity.
Right now, the Jewish community is finishing up its annual marking of days, as each night we count the Omer, the 49 days between the second night of Passover and the beginning of Shavuot. Immediately after, we'll mark another set of days, one with only despair and no celebration.
What is balance? It is defined as finding equilibrium for the body or mind. I've been on a mission to find both.
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