Rabbi Michael M. Cohen

The counting of the Omer is an exercise in opening our lives to the holy in what we do. This task is not limited to the Omer period, but everyday throughout the year.

We count the Omer from Passover to Shavuot, the holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah....

At the end of last year two women from Liberia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee, along with the Arab Spring activist Tawakkol Karman from Yemen were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. These three extraordinary women shared the award "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and...

When we think about Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, we usually think of the Zohar, the Kabbalistic commentary on the Torah, or the teachings and stories of the Hasidic rabbis. While all this is true, the foundation of Kabbalah is the very credo of Judaism -- the Sh'ma (Deuteronomy 6:4) which is...

Acting as a leitmotif, rain lightly showers the beginning of the Jewish year. The powerful song Avinu Malkeinu ("Our Father, Our King"), sung on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, was written by the first and second century Rabbi Akiva as a prayer for rain during a drought (Babylonian Talmud Taanit...

There was a time when our first association with 24-7 was a football score, now it is how we describe the pace of our lives. Emails, faxes and cell phones scream at us for immediate response. Add to this that we are surrounded by a nonstop news media that races...

Ten years ago, on Sept. 11, I woke up in New York City. There was not a cloud in that perfect blue sky that September morning. It felt as if the day held only the promise of what was good and possible. I was there for the first of what...

The Israeli author Etgar Keret did us all a great favor in his Haaretz interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month where the Prime Minister lowered his guard and stated what he really thinks and feels about the peace process.

In the interview, Netanyahu said, "This...

On a lonely gate facing a desolate sun-drenched open plain of the Arava Valley one can see a mezuzah, the small rectangular box containing writing from the Bible. It was put there following the Biblical injunction to place it on "your gates" (Deuteronomy 6:9). The Arava valley where this gate...

Like a sand dune slithering across the desert landscape covering and swallowing anything in its way, the Arab Revolutions have tenaciously spread across the Middle East. In the midst of that dramatic change I found myself earlier this spring in Dubai. I had been invited to attend the United States-based...