Is  every mitzvah, every commandment equally important?  In some sense, of course — if we understand God as the source of mitzvot, commandments, then every mitzvah is an equal opportunity to obey or disobey God and God’s will for us.  And plus,...

Pastor Carlos Smith of the Journey church said he and Rabbi Noah Arnow did not get much sleep during a recent trip to Israel.It wasn’t jet lag or that the beds in the hotel rooms they shared were uncomfortable. Rather, it was because the two St. Louis...

How do you spin a goat?  What would it even mean to “spin a goat?”  Why would one want to spin a goat?  Yet in describing all the work that the Israelites did to build the tabernacle, the Torah says, “All the women whose hearts inspired them...

I was a little proud, and a little embarrassed, too, when I realized they had given me the hard part.  I was 18. It was the summer between high school and college, and I was in Jerusalem studying for a month at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies....

More than one year after the Conservative congregation Kol Rinah agreed to swap buildings with a church in Clayton, the synagogue board voted that the new building is suitable for a move.The congregation will relocate from 829 N. Hanley Road in University...

Ok, I’m going to come out and say it. I hope no one will think less of me.  Here goes.  I don’t like fruit salad.  I don’t like how all the fruits get mixed up and taste generically fruity.  I like my fruits individuated. I like my apples to...

Kol Rinah has hired an assistant rabbi who will join its shul this summer.“The Jewish community has been so friendly and incredibly welcoming, embracing my family and some of the ideas I have for the synagogue community,” Rabbi Scott Shafrin said....

Between the boarded-up windows, the space heater fighting a bit of a chill in the sanctuary and the periodic beep of a nearby smoke alarm’s dying battery, it was easy to see that life was winding down for the building at 1107 E. Linden Ave. in Richmond...