Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Passover Is A Time To Renew Jewish-African American Common Cause

Rabbi Edward Bernstein | Posted 04.04.2012

Read More: Haggadah, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jeffrey Goldberg, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Seder, Exodus, Jonathan Safran Foer, Feet Were Praying, Passover, Judaism, Interfaith, Religion News
Rabbi Edward Bernstein

The Israelites may have left Egypt, but in many ways, we still experience Egypt. Humans still treat people who are different as "other." Until that stops, we are all still enslaved to prejudice and its consequences.

Read Post

A Jewish Eco-Theology

Rabbi Edward Bernstein | Posted 01.30.2012

Read More: Eco-Theology, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Martin Buber, Fracking, Israel, Better Place, Green Faith, Judaism, Eco-Spiritual, Greenfaith, Eco-Judaism, Jewish Environmentalism, Religion News
Rabbi Edward Bernstein

We are created in the image of God, but we are not God. Humanity's unparalleled wisdom and power needs to be tempered by humility.

Read Post

The Beauty In Science And The Beauty In Judaism

Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman | Posted 01.07.2012

Read More: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Beauty, Judaism, Richard Feynman, Judaism Science Beauty, Religion and Science, Natural Beauty, Awe, Curiosity, Religion News
Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman

But what's fascinating is that two of elements -- curiosity and awe -- are two of the driving forces behind both science and Judaism. They are what lead us to see their inherent beauty.

Read Post

Ethical Responsibility And Climate Change: We're All In The Same Boat

Rabbi Lawrence Troster | Posted 10.25.2011

Read More: Green Faith, Judaism, Haida Gwaii, Ethics, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Environmentalism, Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, Religious Environmentalism, Bill Reid, Spirituality, Tuvalu, Religion News
Rabbi Lawrence Troster

As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once said, "Above all, the prophets remind us of the moral state of a people: Few are guilty, but all are responsible."

Read Post

Reviving Hebrew

Mira Sucharov | Posted 07.22.2011

Read More: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Hebrew, Eliezer Ben Yehuda, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Education Reform, Hebrew Knowledge, Jewish Literacy, Jewish Summer Camp, Jewish Culture, Hebrew Literacy, Religion News
Mira Sucharov

There is much hand-wringing over Jewish continuity, but less attention paid to Jewish literacy. One factor that is especially neglected -- to our peril -- is the centrality of Hebrew language knowledge.

Read Post

The Song Of Songs: Passover's Poetic Wonder

Rabbi Edward Bernstein | Posted 08.02.2011

Read More: Passover, Rabbi Akiva, Passover Rituals, Song of Songs, Pesach 2011, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, King James Bible Translation, Passover 2011, Artscoll, Open Minded Torah, WIlliam Kolbrener, Shir HaShirim, Song of Solomon, Religion News
Rabbi Edward Bernstein

One of my favorite Passover rituals is the reading in synagogue of the biblical book the Song of Songs. Its images evoke spring and are perfect for this season of rebirth.

Read Post

Why 'Do You Believe in God?' Is The Wrong Question To Ask

Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman | Posted 06.07.2011

Read More: Connection, Religion, Andrew Sullivan, Sam Harris, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Kindness, God, Justice, Belief, Martin Buber, Dialogue, Spirituality, Religion News
Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman

When you're asking a question with an expected answer, and that answer is the opposite of what you hope it will be, there's no constructive dialogue. It simply comes off as a judgmental attack.

Read Post

Rabbis, Rev. King And Revolution

Robyn Carolyn Price | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Egypt Protests, Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Susannah Heschel, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Muslim-Christian Solidarity, Egyptian Revolution, Rabbi David Teitelbaum, Interfaith Dialogue, Selma March, We Shall Overcome, My Feet Were Praying, Heschel and MLK, Black-Jewish Relations, Religion News
Robyn Carolyn Price

The sounds of Muslims and Christians in Tahrir Square praying and protesting echoes a transformational moment when Jewish rabbis risked their lives to protect Black Americans.

Read Post

Selma And Salamah: Egyptian Voices For Peace As The Fruit Of Justice

Ingrid Mattson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Egypt Protests, Islam, Martin Luther King, Selma, Egypt Revolution, Egypt, Martin Luther King Jr., Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Christianity, Salamah, Peace, Egypt Riots, Selma March, Religion News
Ingrid Mattson

Like Rabbi Heschel and Dr. King, the Egyptian protesters moved beyond parochial religious identities to come together to call for a peace in a place where it has been long denied.

Read Post

The Confounding, All-Penetrating And Revolutionary Voice Of God

Arnold M. Eisen | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Judaism, Rabbi Akiva, Sefat Emet, Parashat Yitro, Mordechai Kaplan, Parashat Mishpatim, Voice of God, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Biblical Creation, Revelation at Sinai, Jewish Covenant, Ten Commandments, Torah Wisdom, Religion News
Arnold M. Eisen

If God had wanted to establish a religion at Sinai, there would have been no need for a kingdom or nation. The Torah aims at far more than collective belief or individual enlightenment.

Read Post

Needed: Dr. King in Tucson

Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Gun Violence, Rep. Giffords Shooting, Dr. King, Ending Hatred, Arizona Shooting, Gabrielle Giffords, World News
Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater

The values of Dr. King -- love, compassion, nonviolence and tolerance -- are being drowned out by the values of a fringe minority in our country.

Read Post

Isaiah, Kafka's Leopard and Subersive Prayer: Thoughts for Yom Kippur

Rabbi Arthur Waskow | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Yom Kippur 2010, Yom Kippur, Abrhaam Joshua Heschel, Leopard Synagogue, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Judaism, Subversive Prayer, Kafka Leopard, Prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 58, Kafka's Leopard, Synagogue Leopard, Religion News
Rabbi Arthur Waskow

And Yom Kippur is rolling around again. Let us let God's leopard loose on Yom Kippur. May we in Isaiah's name let "subversive" prayer leap from the letters in the prayerbook.

Read Post

Heeding Heschel's Call: Hebrew Union Seminarians Pray With Their Feet at Park51

Joshua Stanton | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Ground Zero Mosque, Prayer, park51, Hebrew Union College, Liberty Walk, Religion News
Joshua Stanton

Heeding Heschel's call, on Tuesday, August 31, over forty students, staff, and faculty from Hebrew Union College - New York walked with signs of support, yarmakules, prayer shawls, and ceremonial rams horns from our campus on West Fourth Street to the Park51 community center.

Read Post

An Introduction to Kabbalah, Part 10: The Kabbalah of Inspiration

Jay Michaelson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Jack Kornfield, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Jay Michaelson, Thomas Edison, Kabbalah, The Balanced Life, Zalman Schachter, Judaism, Kaballah, Kabalah, Religion News
Jay Michaelson

Kabbalah is largely about balance: love and boundary, mercy and judgment, upper and lower, symbolic and literal, physical and spiritual. Balance, and how things go out of balance.

Read Post

Preaching to the Choir: Metro and 30/10 Revisited

Joel Epstein | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Congress, Mass Transit, President Obama, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Jobs, Mayor Villaraigosa, Bob Dylan, Los Angeles, Ray Lahood, Measure R, Infrastructure, Religion, Muhammad, Martin Luther King, Metro, Jesus, Rosa Parks, Gladys Knight, Los Angeles News
Joel Epstein

With a tip of my Metro cap to Bob Dylan for his special telling of the sacrifice of Isaac, over the weekend I took a virtual drive out on Highway 61. ...

Read Post

Would MLK Top His Gefilte Fish with Horseradish?

Ed Begley Jr. | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Luther King, Food, Los Angeles News
Ed Begley Jr.

With a positive public-private partnership we can expand the grocery industry to all parts of Los Angeles and, over time, transform the physical and economic health of entire communities.

Read Post

Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of al-Qaeda, Parts 3 and 4

Clarence B. Jones | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Dr. King, Israel, Martin Luther King, Al Qaeda, Politics News
Clarence B. Jones

In commemoration of the legacy of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, we must now call upon the children and grandchildren of that grand alliance to defeat al Qaeda.

Read Post

Why We Approach the Durban II 'Anti-Racism' Conference with Trepidation

Rabbi Abraham Cooper | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Anti-Semitism, Jews, Holocaust, Durban 2, Durban Review Conference, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Foreign Affairs, Anwar Al-Sadat, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Amnesty International, Iran, Durban Process, Apartheid, Libya, World Conference Against Racism, Bahai, UN Human Rights Council, Africa, Durban, Zionism, Anwar El-Sadat, Durban Ii, Durban 2009, Israel, Zionism Is Racism, Durban Conference, Advocacy, World News
Rabbi Abraham Cooper

Despite cosmetic changes to the Durban conference, there is every reason to believe we are in for yet another hate fest. Let's hope that this farce will not generate new tragedies.

Read Post