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Tzror Hakhayyim, a Destination Beyond Life, Space and Time
As a secular Israeli child, my training in prayer was none. I had no reason to step into a synagogue and less so to pray. Loyal to the political and ideological indoctrination of my youth, I had consciously attempted to keep myself “untainted“ by exposure to Jewish classical text and most especially to liturgy. Therefore,...
Read MoreAncient Rabbi Ben Zakai and fasting on Yom Kippur
The Hebrews or Ivrim עברים discovered YHVH, the divine presence, while in the Desert. During their journeys they encountered the threshold between this world and the world of spirit. They recognized the limitations of the material world and the vastness of the spirit world. They named this spiritual threshold Adonai אדני, which derives from the...
Read MoreThe interfaith wedding conundrum, a letter to a colleague
Dear Rabbi Evan J. Krame, Thank you for sharing your critical reflections on handling aspects of the interfaith wedding. I appreciate your search for a coherent framework for interfaith weddings that goes beyond “just accommodating”. As you mentioned, many a Jewish partner in an interfaith couple present the need to satisfy their relatives’ or their...
Read MoreNot Guilty, But Not Right!
A society and its culture are measured amongst other things by how it regulates killing. The recent not-guilty verdict for a teen shooter claiming self-defense raises great concern about the direction of our American society. We can learn a great deal from the experience of the ancient Israelites. Their law allowed killing, even when forbidding...
Read MoreIt Takes Everyone To Holistically Manage A Pandemic (part 3)
(Continued from part 2) EINSTEIN’S INSIGHT Not enough is known about how to handle the COVID-19 pandemic in spite of a century long history of reductionist medical successes, including past vaccination campaigns. We have been caught by surprise by a new magnitude of health crisis. The pandemic apparently is revealing critical fault lines in the reductionist...
Read MoreKama Tov Sh’Baata Habayta Welcome Home
Shalom Hanoch sang in 1988 “Kama Tov Sh’Baata Habayta, Kama Tov Lir’ot Otkha Shuv… How good it is that you have come home, how good it is to see you again". In those innocent days of the 1980s, we have not yet truly known the meaning of national longing for hostages and the immense joy...
Read MoreIsrael Palestine, The Elephant in The Room
Have you ever noticed that when we, Westerners, discuss the motivations behind the Israeli Palestinian conflict, there seems to be an “elephant in the room”, an awareness that hovers in the space but all pretend doesn’t exist? The elephant is the role that religious ideologies and religious sentiment play in perpetuating the conflict. The details...
Read MoreCan We Care For Our Enemy?
Caring About The Enemy A facebook slogan that has been somewhat viral goes, “I can feel heartbroken for two peoples at the same time”. Among friends and colleagues, especially those of us who are politically progressive, spiritually and emotionally sensitive, and morally conscientious there has been this debate of late: “Is it ok to care...
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