A Modern-Day Patriarch
The first notice, shortly before Rosh Hashana, came from “Tehilla.” The subject box of the e-mail read: “Baruch Dayan HaEmet/URGENT, YOSEF PASSED AWAY!” and the message began: “I can’t believe this rabbi. I can’t...
Category: Judaism
Celebrating Diversity
I was also at a Shiva this week — a member of our community lost his brother, who lived in Israel, after a long illness. Their family is from Iraq, and praying in his...
Shimi Grama, z”l: The Tragedy and the Tribute
Most often, noteworthy people are known for what they do. Sometimes, what impresses us most is what they are. Los Angeles learned this distinction a few days ago in tragedy that left the community...
I ♥ THE U.N.
I love the United Nations. Yes, I know, the General Assembly was well and memorably described by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a “theater of the absurd.” Actually, a better metaphor might be a...
Rewriting the Past
Bar Ilan University Milton scholar William Kolbrener has a profound meditation on Yom Kippur and teshuva (repentance) in his new collection of essays, Open Minded Torah. He begins by noting a profound distinction between...
Meaningless Ritual
The original founders of the “Jewish Friends of Reform,” in Germany of 1843, invited to join them “all who do not accord any authority or obligatory power to the confused and frequently meaningless rabbinical...
Steve Jobs’ Mussar For Yom Kippur
We have heard this thought before, stated pithily by Chazal and amplified upon by many who followed after. There is every indication, however, that Steve Jobs actually lived by this ethic. The words that...
A Jewish Guide to Time Travel
Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz, the brilliantly insightful 16th century author of the Torah commentary Kli Yakar, comments on the fact that the word the Torah uses for the sun and moon—“me’oros,” or “luminaries,” (Beraishis,...
Who Will Live?
Shortly after the end of World War II, a modern-looking young man, sporting a large chup, was brought to the Klausenberger Rebbe zt”l, in one of the displaced persons camps. “I heard that before...
Klal Perspectives
A new journal was born today, and many fervent prayers attended the blessed event. Klal Perspectives will BE”H provide a forum for the presentation of ideas on meeting the many challenges facing us as...
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