What should Israel do when the Status-Quo is anything but? When David Ben Gurion drafted the Status-Quo Agreement following Israel’s independence in 1948, it aimed to codify Israel’s identity as a home for observant Jews: It asserted Shabbat...

Imagine sitting in the crowd of a wedding as two women exchange vows, or witnessing a Jewish partner pledge their commitment to their Muslim beloved. Envision next a ceremony unbound by ritual in which two secular Jews join in matrimony through legal...

My friend has a little wooden sign in her kitchen that says, “Sorry for the mess, but we live here.” It always makes me smile because it acknowledges that life is often a messy business. Between the kids leaving crumpled up homework,...

I get sinus infections. I often get them more than once a year. By the time my symptoms go from bad to worse, I’m on antibiotics, an antihistamine, a steroid inhaler, a nasal spray, a nasal rinse, an anti-inflammatory, an antacid, and chicken soup....

“We can’t let people ever forget,” said Leo Wolf, chairman emeritus of the St. Louis Holocaust Committee and a Holocaust survivor, in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s 1995 coverage of the opening of the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center. “We...

Let’s take a moment and imagine being there. We have just borne witness to one of the most miraculous events in human history. God has split the Red Sea, and we and 2 million other former slaves have crossed on dry land. Meanwhile, our former masters,...

Amidst the sea of suffering the current administration is perpetrating on people here and abroad, I call your attention to anti-immigration legislation in Missouri: SB 58 and SB 72.  SB 58 does a couple of highly problematic and unconstitutional things....

To most people, the 2005 movie “Wedding Crashers” is a lighthearted comedy romp in which two lovelorn bachelors crash weddings to meet women. But imagine the following scenario: At your daughter’s 500-person wedding, a concerned friend informs you...

The Torah portion Tzav is about gratitude. While the Book of Leviticus is the shortest book of the Torah, it mainly speaks to the priests in a language and setting we may have difficulty understanding. We read about ritual observances of an ancient...

So many lessons in Vayikra, “and God called,” the first word. First the lesson in form, the alef in the word Vayikra, “and God called” is writ small in every scroll. Not only does God call with a silent letter (the alef is silent), God calls...

“Mah tovu ohalecha Yaakov, mishk’notecha Yisrael.”  How lovely are your tents [people of] Jacob; your sanctuaries [people of] Israel. I often have used this prayer to teach my young students that when visiting a friend’s beautiful synagogue...

Before Moshe relays to the Children of Israel the Divine command to build the Mishkan, the Tabernacle where God can dwell among them, he relays to Israel the mitzvah to keep Shabbat. This is in keeping with God’s commands to Moshe, as we saw in Parshat...