My recent posts...Most of us never hear the end of the Torah: the last two chapters of Devarim / Deuteronomy are read only on Simchat Torah morning. I’ve been in shul every Simchat Torah morning for as long as I can remember. Yet I was surprised this year by the three...

My recent posts...Enough “I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” President Donald Trump on Tuesday. On Wednesday: “I think if you vote for a Democrat, you are very, very disloyal to...

My recent posts...Tu b’Av Destruction, lamentation and exile — the major (in minor mode) motifs of Tish’a b’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av. Both of the ancient Holy Temples were destroyed on that day, and many other calamities in Jewish history are pegged to 9...

My recent posts...Second Chances The Jewish Day of Second Chances is a Torah-mandated opportunity. If you were unable to observe the Pesach sacrifice at the original time, say because you were traveling or were ritually impure, you are expected to participate in the...

My recent posts...Seething In this week’s Torah reading, God says to the Israelites: “No boiling a baby goat in its mother’s milk.” Simple enough, no? Yet look where that seemingly simple statement has led us: (at least) two sets of dishes for daily use, two sets of...

My recent posts...Vay’chi 5778 Others…A 98 year-old who had been a “Top Secret Rosie,” a female “computer” working on ENIAC, the first super computer. A man, just a couple of years older than I, who was remembered most for his kindness and generous spirit; another...

My recent posts...

My recent posts...I enjoy perusing the New York Times’ year-end top-ten lists of books and movies even if I’ve read or seen few of those listed. More moving and enlightening for me is “The Lives They Lived,” an end-of-year Sunday Magazine dedicated to some of the...

My recent posts...Commemorating the merger between Temple Emeth Shalom and Congregation Beth Judah, and with an eye on the structural and cosmetic changes made to our building, the two-year mark seemed like a propitious time for a party. I titled it a “reDedication”...

On this Shabbat haGadol, this Great Shabbat, across the country and around the world, many thousands of people, especially young people, are rallying in support of action against the plague of gun violence that afflicts our country.

About 500 years before the Parthenon was built, King Solomon constructed in Jerusalem a magnificent temple as the worship center of, and earthly abode for, the God of Israe

It takes a lot of people to keep Shirat Hayam vibrant, and, of course, more ideas and more hands and hearts are always welcome.