“Would you accompany me, Missouri legislator whom I don’t know, to my OB-GYN’s office?” no woman in our state has ever asked. In all of my reproductive care appointments since I was 18 years old, from contraception and family planning,...

Reb Moshe Leib loved his fellow Jews so much that he searched daily for lost souls. In one of his excursions, he found himself in a tavern and overheard the following exchange between two Russian peasants:  Declared the first: “I love you, my...

First, women marched in St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and in thousands of other cities. The next year, they did it again because the dangerous consequences of the current White House administration’s policies were crystal clear. And now a record...

“Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin?  He freed a lot of people, but it seems the good die young.  But I just look around and he’s gone.” — Lyric from “Abraham, Martin and John,” by Dion DiMucci It is hard to believe that...

When we were small, we were taught there were “bad words” we should never say. In elementary school we tested them out bit by bit, knowing that our parents and teachers would punish us if they actually heard us using “bad words.” By our teen...

When I was a very young rabbi in my first position as B’nai B’rith chaplain to the Mayo Clinic system’s hospitals, I met a woman from a Hasidic community during my rounds one day. As we were talking, she gave voice to a crisis in faith. As...

Leviticus 19:16 compels us “do not stand idly by while your neighbor’s blood is shed.” This past week, millions showed up for the student-organized March for Our Lives rallies in every major city. Missourians in Columbia, Joplin, Kansas City,...

Parashat Vayechi brings tears to my eyes and joy to my heart. Every emotion is wrapped into the blessings, disappointments and challenges of saying goodbye to a loved one, and the consequential changing family dynamics that follow the burial of a family...

In today’s bitterly divisive political climate, alliances that were once enduring appear to have grown increasingly estranged from one another. A couple of recent events occurring within weeks of each other are reminders of the once solid relationship...

We knew it was coming.   The worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history happened in Las Vegas last week, with 58 killed and more than 500 injured. The numbers of fatalities will keep changing, as families are devastated and medical professionals with...

Ha’azinu is a lesson about remembering and forgetting. While this Torah portion includes a piece of poetry, one may suggest that the entire Torah is poetry. Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (1817-1893) wrote: “One of the distinguishing marks of poetry...