For the second time in my life, I witnessed a baby being redeemed from a life of service in the priesthood at the Temple in Jerusalem. The first, I was that baby. At this, my second Pidyon haBen, Raffi Shane Wolfe, the grandson of our WUPJ Chair Carole Sterling, was redeemed. As a staunch Liberal […]
The Hebrew word “Naso” means “to lift up” and with this word God commanded Moses and Aaron to “lift up” the Children of Israel by concluding the census. It is a curious idea at first glance, to “lift up” in order to take a census, but it makes sense.
By: Rabbi Ferenc Raj, PhD Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Beth El, Berkeley, CA, USA; Founding Rabbi, Congregation Bet Orim, Budapest, Hungary Jewish Memories “Our existence is not in vain. There is a Divine earnestness about our life. This is our dignity. To be invested with dignity means to represent something more than oneself. The gravest […]
Recent Issues By Rabbi Paul (Shaul) R Feinberg, PhD, Associate Dean, Emeritus and Adjunct Associate Professor of Education, Emeritus, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion , Jerusalem, Israel. “The last word has not been spoken, The last sentence has not been written The final verdict is not in It is never too late to change […]
by Rabbi Ann B. Folb, Arlington, VA Ha’azinu , “pay attention,” “give ear”, and so begins the Torah portion which is the last to be assigned for Shabbat morning during our liturgical year. We have come almost full circle in our readings. Chapters 33 and 34 are read on Simchat Torah morning. Moses has been […]
Recent Issues By: Rabbi Bennett F. Miller, Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple , New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA Change is Certain; Don’t take surveys: and Don’t be dismayed! Ah! The parashah between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur! In the midst of the time of the year when we are considering “who will live and who will […]
Recent Issues By Rabbi Gary A. Glickstein, Temple Beth Sholom , USA Will you sing about me when I’m gone The rapper Kendrick Lamar recorded a song he wrote with Marilyn and Alan Bergman and Quincy Jones. The words Lamar raps relate mostly to a world you and I only read about in the news […]
By Rabbi Y. Lindsey bat Joseph, Executive Director, Sol Mark Centre for Jewish Excellence Vayeilech is the shortest sidrah in the Torah. Covering just one chapter in Deuteronomy, in the annual reading cycle it is often paired with the preceding sidrah Nitzavim from which many Reform synagogues read on Yom Kippur morning. Vayeilech opens with […]
Recent Issues By: Rabbi Phil Cohen Ph.D, Rabbi of Temple Israel , West Lafayette, Indiana, USA Atem nitzavim hayom kulchem lifnei Adonai Eloheichem (Deuteronomy 29:9)/ Thus begins this week’s sidrah . All of you, from all levels of society, stand here today at the river’s edge in the presence of God. All of you have […]
Jews of all denominations tend to talk about ourselves in collective terms: ‘Progressive Jews’; ‘Liberal Jews’; ‘Reform Jews’; ‘Reconstructionist Jews’; ‘Orthodox Jews’; ‘Chassidic Jews’; ‘Secular Jews’; ‘Cultural Jews’; ‘Socialist Jews’; ‘Radical Jews’ … Some of these terms connect with actual organisational structures – like the ‘World Union for Progressive Judaism’. Meanwhile, ‘Chassidic Jews’, for example, […]