My earliest memory of prayer is my mother, of blessed memory, tucking me into bed with a kiss and the words of the Shema. To say that God is One, to know that this declaration of faith embraced me in the circle of love and belief of all Jewish souls who...

At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Moses has finally led the Israelites across the wilderness and he turns his eyes to gaze on the Promised Land. It seems as if it should be a joyous moment, but we know that it’s actually bittersweet,...

“To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” I was in a rabbinical school class when I first heard this adage. The saying was proffered by a professor as a working definition of Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible — or TaNaK (an acronym for...

I ran into one of the prophets at Schnucks. He was looking over the fresh fruit. Someone spotted him and he signed a cantaloupe with this: I love you with all my broken heart.Then he started to recite poetry. Three weeks I sat in sadness, he declaimed,...