As countless youth prepare for Summer camp, we do well to remember the wisdom of Deuteronomy 23:15 – “Let your camp be holy; let God not find anything unseemly among you.” Originally in reference to...
Jewish folklore is replete with tales of the “Golem” – a magical creature (sometimes erratic and tragically lacking in discernment) brought into being from inanimate matter through the mystical offices of leading sages. The 16th...
This Memorial Day, we remember the storied 1945 eulogy preached by Lieutenant Roland Gittelsohn, a United States Marine chaplain, for American casualties at Iwo Jima. Noting the racial, social, and religious diversity of the fallen,...
This Shabbat, as we read in Parshat Bemidbar of the People Israel’s tribal princes, much of the world’s attention will be riveted to the royal wedding of Britain’s Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle....
The Rabbis (Sanhedrin 37A) describe Jerusalem as tiburo shel olam — “the navel, the belly-button of the world!” Let’s contemplate this curious metaphor. The ancients not implausibly considered the Land of Israel (Jerusalem at its...
I recently attended a “Friends of Scouting” dinner keynoted by astronaut Mark Kelly. He encouraged and inspired young Scouts and their leaders, speaking of his youth, his military service, and his storied career.
“Shema Yisrael!” The Shema is the most famous and central prayer of Jewish tradition. We teach this verse to our children as soon as they are able to speak, and we strive to make these...
Ben Shiv’im L’Seivah, says Pirkei Avot (5:21) – “The age of seventy brings fullness of years.” What an historic privilege it has been to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the founding of a free and...
I have noted previously in this column that God’s name appears nowhere in the Book of Esther. Countless Seder celebrants cite the parallel exclusion of Moses from the Passover Haggadah. Moses’ conspicuous absence may be...
In my youth, I was privileged to attend a truly outstanding congregational Hebrew School, under the leadership of Rabbi Asher Bar-Zev. I remember vividly sitting among particularly unruly and inattentive Hebrew high school students, when...
