Category: Interfaith

29

Cause and Effect?

A Letter to the Editor in the Baltimore Jewish Times, December 5, restates a common theme in modern Jewish thought: whereas assimilation and low birth rates are lowering the Jewish population, we should be...

14

“Married” and The Mob

From the agitation and anger of the crowds, the din of the car horns and the shouts of “Civil rights now!” and “Bigots!” one would have been forgiven for thinking that the protesters were...

10

Spiritual Fast Food

Were it not so sad, the image of the pop singer teaching Kabbala to the Yankee third baseman could be a comic invention – the once-impregnable fortress of Kabbala overrun by fools and miscreants. The unkindest cut of all is that the headlines link Kabbala with two individuals who are not even Jewish and certainly have no Judaic learning whatsoever, who cannot read or understand a Hebrew word, who cannot even pronounce the word “Kabbala” correctly, who know nothing of its provenance, and whose closest encounter with things Jewish is the corner deli.

14

How to reply when the doorbell rings

Many years ago, while a rabbi in Atlanta, I answered a knock on my door one Shabbat afternoon. Standing in front of me was a fine-looking couple – obviously non-Jewish. “Shabbat Shalom, rabbi,” they...

57

The Power of Chabad

I have a son approaching Bar Mitzvah age, which means he will be needing Tefillin shortly. My mother mentioned that her grandfather’s old Tefillin were in a package in a basement. I had never...

27

Dear Sean

Dear Sean, I know this might sound strange coming from a father who’s far from a religious Jew, but now that you’re dating, there’s something I need you to understand. The single most important...

6

Talk to the Snakes

In a 1938 essay, Mohandas (“Mahatma”) Gandhi, the spiritual and political leader of the Indian independence movement, counseled Jews in Nazi Germany to neither flee nor resist but rather offer themselves up to be...

13

Disenfranchised

From the Jewish Council for Public Affairs: January 19th is one of the most important contests in the Democratic and Republican quests for their parties’ nomination for the presidency. It is also Shabbat. This...

22

No. We’re sorry. Not Jerusalem.

This morning I counted. There were at least ten times the Hebrew name of Jerusalem, or its synonym Zion, passed my lips. Before breakfast. There was “Jerusalem, praise G-d,” “May You shine a new...

14

Saving Mother Teresa

Time Magazine’s cover story this week provides an opportunity for what Einstein (and others) called a “thought experiment.” Time examines a different side of Mother Teresa. A veritable icon of spiritual strength and confidence...

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