Will humans ever land on Mars? Quite a number of people are trying to make it happen.

Buzz Aldrin has just published a book, "Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration." About half a million people are expected to apply for a one-way trip to...

"Each generation, people must see themselves as if they themselves went forth from Egypt."

That quote is the essence of why we celebrate Passover, read the Haggadah and hold a Seder. When we think about that sentence, we naturally focus on how Passover should inspire us to work for freedom...

Every day, I do the New York Times crossword puzzle. It truly is a ritual for me, almost as sacred as Shabbat: Every night before going to bed, I load up the crossword on my phone or my computer, and try to plow through that mental challenge.

I've...

Click here to read an original op-ed from the TED speaker who inspired this post and watch the TEDTalk below.

Do we still experience miracles today? It all depends on what we think a "miracle" truly is.

Often, when we think of miracles, we envision the...

At about 3:30 p.m. on Monday, our house in White Plains, New York lost TV and Internet service. We still had lights, and just a few minutes later, they came back on. We were hopeful.

But then, at about 6:30, I got a call from our landlord -- he lost...

Think about an activity you love to do that gives you a good challenge. Maybe it's playing tennis. Maybe it's sailing. Maybe you're like me, and it's working on the Saturday New York Times crossword.

Whatever it is, when you're deeply involved in that activity, you're in a state that's...

There are two Hebrew words that we say many, many times over these High Holy Days. They express a wonderful sentiment to use when we greet others -- whether in the sanctuary, in the parking lot or with friends and family -- because they reflect our hopes for this New...

Jonah Lehrer was one of my favorite authors. I found his writing style engaging and his content thought-provoking, but what I loved most was his ability to explain complicated scientific studies in ways that laypeople could understand.

Because my focus is on the interaction of science and religion, and in...

Rabbi Geoffrey Mitelman: It's inherently challenging for believers and atheists to have productive conversations. Discussing topics such as belief and nonbelief, the potential irrationality of religion, or the limits of scientific knowledge is difficult since each side often ends up more firmly entrenched in their own worldview.

But one bright...

A study has just come out that argues that analytical thinking weakens religious belief, while at the same time, intuitive thinking may strengthen religious feelings.

Though the article comes out in a new issue of Science, this idea has been hypothesized for the last few years. For example,...

Compassion is a deep-seated value in every religious tradition. Judaism teaches that the world stands on Torah, on prayer and on acts of loving kindness. Christians celebrate the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke. And a major reason the Dalai Lama is so honored is because of his Buddhist...

For Jews, the exodus from Egypt is the paradigmatic freedom story for all generations.

In the Book of Exodus, Moses tells the Israelites to "remember this day on which you went out from Egypt, from the house of bondage, how Adonai freed...

As someone who loves both religion and science, I often struggle with how they interact.

Are they in opposition to each other? Do they need to be reconciled? What happens when new scientific knowledge challenges the tenets of my faith?

Part of the difficulty in talking about science and religion...

A friend of mine -- an ardent environmentalist -- just had a baby. She was trying to decide whether she would buy cloth diapers, which would be much friendlier to the earth, or go with disposables. She naturally started with cloth, but within a couple of weeks of washing and...

Generally, our minds have no problem with coming up with lots of ideas -- it's fairly easy for us to think about creating something new. And with perseverance, we can often turn our ideas into reality.

But too frequently, we don't recognize which ideas should have just stayed in our...

Quite often, what makes us happy and what is actually good for us are directly at odds with each other. What worked for us evolutionarily over the millenia frequently becomes counter-productive in our current world. For example, fat was a scarce and valuable resource when Homo sapiens evolved on the...

Think about the most inspiring piece of art you have ever looked at. Or the most powerful book you have ever read. Or the most moving play or movie you've seen.

Now -- why did you find it so beautiful?

There were probably any number of reasons -- it may...

My wife Heather is a fiber artist. She creates quilts, wall-hangings and even three-dimensional structures based on Jewish texts and social justice themes. And for the last two years, she has been going to homeless shelters through New York City to talk to men, women and children, in...

Joshua Foer, who happens to be the brother of the best-selling novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, spent most of 2006 trying to memorize all sorts of things: the exact order of a deck of shuffled playing cards, hundreds of random numbers and as many names as he could to put with...

You may have seen David Brooks' recent article entitled "If It Feels Right," where he talks about "moral individualism" -- how young adults are coming to believe that they have the power to define their own moral code, and why that individualism is such a big problem for...