This week, we read parshat Noach, the second parshah of the Torah. It’s a well known story: G-d saw that the people of the earth had been corrupted, so He instructed Noah to build in ark, inside which Noah, his family, and the animals would be protected...
BY RABBI DALE SCHREIBER
• Published October 2, 2013
We are hardly through the wonder of creation when the biblical narrative tells us that creation had failed to live up to its potential. The fundamental nature of human life remained at a bestial level. It was a failed experiment requiring a new paradigm. ...
By Rabbi James Stone Goodman
• Published September 25, 2013
I studied the book Bahir (often translated as the Book of Brightness or Illumination) with Dr. I. O. Lehman, of blessed memory, who taught five of us in a secret class at the Hebrew Union College. In those days, Hebrew Union College was not known for...
BY RABBI JOSEF DAVIDSON
• Published September 18, 2013
Over my life I have made 16 moves for an average of a move every four years. The longest that I have ever lived in one house is eleven years, and the longest that I have ever resided in one city was 14. The shortest residence I ever had was eight...
Here we are once again. The time to welcome in the Jewish New Year has come. During moments such as these, when we embark on something new, we first tend to undergo some form of reflection—we look back past events and set new goals for the future. We...
By Rabbi Jim BennettMy father was a wandering pathologist; we moved five times during my childhood, as my father chose to leave his family medical practice and return to medical school and a residency in pathology, and then pursued his career as a clinical...
By Rabbi Dale Schreiber
• Published August 14, 2013
We are nearing the final chapters in the Book of Deuteronomy. This year, Deuteronomy feels a bit like a Jewish insurance policy. Moses, the agent, is renewing the policy, reminding us how we got here, before Whom we stand, what the operations manual...
On June 22, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcomed into the world their first child, George Alexander Louis. The newborn son of Kate Middleton and Prince William is currently third in the line of succession to the British throne, third in line to...
Even though the messianic thrust of our heritage has been born of a longing for unity, for oneness, for wholeness, for peace, our quotidian concerns and halakhic strictures have repeatedly placed separation and distinctiveness at the forefront of our...
This summer, I decided to stay in St. Louis to take classes at school. Then, in order to fill the other ten or so hours of my day not occupied by Calculus, I began to look for a job, and eventually met a family that had been looking for an afternoon nanny.The...
When I watch the local news or read the headlines, I am often depressed to learn about all of the suffering and hardship in our community. Stories about crime, shootings, and other acts of violence often dominate the top stories. Clearly we live in...
When I was little, sometime around ages 5 and 6, I used to love visiting my grandma. Back then, she lived in New York. I wouldn’t be able to describe the house today—what it was made of, how the front yard looked, or even where it was. But I remember...
