Yosef Mendelovitch, the famous Prisoner of Zion who helped bring down the "Evil Empire" of Soviet communism and atheism, relates that he decided to wear a kippah while in prison. He cut out a piece of cloth from his flimsy prison garb and placed the cloth on his head. Though the prisoner warden ordered him to remove the cloth from his head, it being a violation of prisoner clothing regulations,...
Judaism has a formula for dealing with tragedy when it strikes. That formula is contained in the halacha of aveilut, mourning itself. The recognition of death and tragedy as being inescapable parts of one's life experience is what forms the underpinnings of that process of halacha which eventually leads to the ability to move forward in life even though one's heart may be forever irreparably...
Matchmaking is an old, traditionally blessed and honored Jewish occupation. In fact, the Talmud attributes matchmaking to be the Lord's primary preoccupation. Only Jews speak about the Lord in such an intimate fashion. In any event, the shadchan as matchmaker appears as part of every Jewish society and in all times and places. Reliance on "official" (read professional) shadchanim waxed and waned...
In halacha, measurements of time, space and size are essential ingredients of proper observance of mitzvot and ritual obligations. There are set time limits for the recitation of prayers and for the entry and exit of the Sabbath and holy days, there are minimum sizes for the required halachic consumption of certain foods and drinks and there are space (height, width, etc.) measurements that...
Having safely passed through Tisha B'Av this week and having had that long day to think about the events that the day commemorates, I am taking the liberty to share a few of my thoughts about that day with you. The primary events that the day commemorates refer to the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem. The loss of the Temples was not only a blow to the religion of the Jews...
We are currently in the midst of the weeks of mourning that mark the commemoration of the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem and the loss of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. Today there are grief counselors who help us survive times of tragedy mourning. However, in Jewish history and tradition, ritual, poetry and public worship services served to be most effective. The purpose...
We are about to mark the ninetieth baleful anniversary of the outbreak of World War I - the "Great War" as it was then naively known. The war was the catalyst for all of the other murderous wars, revolutions and events of the bloodiest century in human history that followed this war. The war was brought about by catastrophic miscalculations of the great European powers. It was a combination of...
The explosion of creativity and invention that mark the advance of human exploitation of new technologies in all fields of endeavor has been a continuing feature of world society over the last few centuries. In the Jewish world, new innovations in technology always engender questions of halacha and of religious and social policy. Since new technology almost always entails the forsaking of the old...
The history of the Jewish people is replete with descriptions of Jews who hated themselves for being born Jewish and who therefore hated Judaism, other Jews and many times humankind generally. These self-haters were traditionally recognized in the Jewish world as being traitors and as a danger to Jewish survival. In the Bible we read of such people as Ravshakeh, the Jewish, Hebrew-speaking,...
I have had to spend considerable time over the past few weeks with my father who was taken ill and was being treated in a local Jerusalem hospital. Having been a community and synagogue rabbi for decades, I am no stranger to visiting hospitals and patients. Yet, this latest experience of visiting the hospital a number of times every day taught me a lesson, viscerally and emotionally, that I had...
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