Commentary - Blog
- Home
- »
- Commentary – Blog
The Shahid’s Sanctuary – a critique of Zoosman’s “The Cost of Revenge… Israel’s Response to Hamas”
Dear Cantor Zoosman. Thank you for writing the thoughtful and provocative piece “The Cost of Revenge, A Cantor’s Critique of Israel’s Response to Hamas”. I admire your activism toward the elimination of capital punishment. I have been following your Ohalah posts on the topic from afar. If I wasn’t already overextended I would be active...
Read MoreA Hawk, a Dove, and Hamas True Motivation
My friend and colleague, Rabbi Jan Salzman, said shortly after October 7th 2023 that there are both a Hawk and Dove residing within her head and heart in equal measure. I believe many of us can relate. We are living through a challenging time in which previously set assumptions about life in Israel and about...
Read MoreAdar, Tragedy-Time Joy?
In Tractate Ta’anit, it is stated: "Just as during the month of Av we decrease in joy, so too, during the month of Adar we increase in joy." Indeed, the sages instruct us to encourage and amplify joy not only on the days of Purim itself but throughout the entire month of Adar. Just recently,...
Read MoreUnity Above All, The Israeli Challenge
One of the greatest challenges in Israel these days, besides the grief for the many casualties, and the anguish over the fate of the hostages, is the fragility of our unity. This fragility began before October 7th, as we all remember.In Parashat Yitro, we read the words of Moses' father-in-law to Moses (Exodus 18:20-21):"And you...
Read MoreHope Against All Odds, Why read the Binding of Isaac story on Rosh Hashana?
Sermon, Rosh HaShana 2nd Day 5784 Bet Israel Masorti Synagogue, Natanya Israel Rabbi Reuben Modek וַיְהִ֗י אַחַר֙ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔לֶּה וְהָ֣אֱלֹהִ֔ים נִסָּ֖ה אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלָ֔יו אַבְרָהָ֖ם וַיֹּ֥אמֶר הִנֵּֽנִי׃ (בראשית כב״ א פרשת וירא) Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test, saying to him, “Abraham.” He answered, ”Hineni”, Here I am. What was the test?…. The binding...
Read MoreWhat COVID Revealed, a path to holistic health and wellness. Parts 1, 2, 3
In an interview I listened to on WGBH’s Innovation Hub with Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, the dean of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, the Doctor shared that according to a study (from April 2020) of COVID hospitalizations in New York City, obesity was statistically more important in determining hospitalization for COVID patients than...
Read MoreRECLAIMING OUR SCROLLS
The First Scroll, Israeli Democracy and the Secular Religious Impasse Early on when the modern state of Israel was founded, Israeli society has enabled the extreme Jewish religious right to assume legal and cultural control over our people’s most cherished collective possession, the Torah. Recently I heard a moderate religious speaker at a pro-democracy rally...
Read Moreהמגילה הראשונה
החברה הישראלית יהודית מאפשרת לדתיים הקיצוניים שליטה בנכס הלאומי המשותף לכולנו – תורת ישראל. שמעתי בהפגנת מחאה דובר מסורתי אומר: ״הדתיים הקיצוניים גנבו לנו את התורה ועלינו לגנוב אותה מהם בחזרה״. איך זה קרה? ראש הממשלה דוד בן גוריון מסר את ניהולם של נישואים, גירושים, קבורה, גיור, וכדומה בידי הרבנות הראשית המנוהלת על ידי המיעוט האורתודוקסי....
Read MoreHanukkah, Hope and the Broadcast of Tragedy
In the Talmud (Bavli Shabbat) we read that the reason for lighting Hanukkah candles is Pirsumah D’Nisa, פרסומא דניסה, “advertising the miracle” (of Hanukkah). We light the Menorah on a window sill in order to make it visible to the world. The lights are meant as a reminder that the Jewish people suffered oppression by...
Read MoreIt Takes Everyone To Holistically Manage A Pandemic (part 1)
The campaign to vaccinate a nation during a pandemic has brought into sharp relief a dimension that we, individual-freedoms-loving Americans often resist, that of the “common good”. “In ordinary political discourse, the “common good” refers to those facilities… that the members of a community provide to all… in order to fulfill a relational obligation they...
Read MoreIt Takes Everyone To Holistically Manage A Pandemic (part 2)
(Continued from part 1) GREATER THAN OUR PARTS Scientism, or Reductionism, which currently frames our reaction to disease in general and to COVID-19 and its variants in particular, has also been a strong motivator for civilization’s progress during the past century. Reductionism, Materialism, and Isolationism, at the time of their emergence in the eighteenth and nineteenth...
Read MoreA Prophecy Worth Its Fulfillment
Passover 5782 What is a prophesy? A story about the future. And a self-fulfilling prophecy? By definition, it is a story that generates a future. This common wisdom about the self-fulfilling potential of articulated predictions, is especially apt on Passover, the holiday of “Telling”. “Haggada”, the booklet we read during the Seder dinner, literally means...
Read More