AHARE MOT AND YOM KIPPUR- THE BOOK OF LIFE AND THE BOOK OF DEATH By Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D There is a popular belief that it is socially inappropriate to say bad things after a person dies in as much as the dead cannot justify themselves. This is expressed in Latin...
Waiting for the Second Marshmallow, Shabbat Vayikra by Rav Edmond H Weiss, Ph.D. It is still embarrassing, even after studying for so many decades, to remember that, until the destruction of the Second Temple, our principal channel of communication with Israel’s God...
Re-eh, anokhi notayn lifnaykhem hayom b’rakha u-k’lalah “Re-eh, I am placing before you today blessing and curse” This week’s Torah portion is all about vision; the open word, re-eh, can mean “See!” or “Look!” Some commentators translate it as “Behold!” or “Pay...
I love studying Talmud, and one of the reasons is because it allows me to get into the hearts, lives and minds of our rabbinic sages, the people who struggled to make our sacred texts accessible, and who created the Judaism we know today. The destruction of Jerusalem...
In “To Life, L’Chaim” from “Fiddler On The Roof,” the villagers of Anatevka sing, “God would like us to be joyful even when our hearts lie panting on the floor.” And as we head into Shabbat and Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, these lyrics certainly...
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