Here we are in the Jewish calendar with no holidays. The month of Cheshvan that just ended is at times referred to as Mar Cheshvan, or Bitter Cheshvan, by virtue of the absence of any holidays.  It is precisely during this time period that we have the...

Inter-generationality is the major theme of this week’s Torah reading, Chayei Sarah.  The narrative begins with the death and burial of our matriarch, Sarah.  It then continues highlighting the marriage of Isaac and Rebeccah, the inheritors of the...

Newsmakers is a compilation of local Jews’ newsworthy professional and academic accomplishments. Submit your news items to [email protected]. Call 314-743-3669 for more information. Published the first edition of each month. Attorney Susan...

The natural desire to make meaning of our world caused human beings to develop hundreds of origin stories, each unique to the culture and people who created them.The Babylonian origin story describes a world that emerged out of utter chaos, with the gods...

Normally, a sacrifice might make a Jew feel weak and lay in bed on Yom Kippur.For Rabbi Daniel Bogard of Central Reform Congregation that weakness hit him two days before the Jewish Day of Atonement, when Jews typically fast.He had made a different sacrifice:...

So you got fat [Deut. 32:15], G*d would have suckled you with honey from a rock and oil from a flinty stone butter of cattle milk or sheep fat of lambs, but you became thick and you kicked. Of course, we will get fat if we eat like that. The honey alone...

As we find ourselves in the seventh month of the “new normal” of COVID-19 and near the beginning of the New Year 5781, one of the most popular catch phrases has become, “We’re all in this together.” This statement is intended to awaken within...

Devarim - Chapter 26: 1: When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, 2: You shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God...

“See, behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse.” (Sefer Devarim, Chapter 11, Verse 26)The brilliant and iconoclastic Hassidic Master, Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav (1772-1810), shares an insightful and powerful interpretation of the opening...

Carl Sagan once said, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” In other words, none of us have ever done anything by ourselves.  Anything that we manage to achieve is possible only because we find ourselves...

Rabbi Joseph Rosenbloom, who served Temple Emanuel for almost six decades, died Monday, Aug. 3, surrounded by family and friends. He was 91 and resided in St. Louis since the mid-1950s.Rosenbloom, who congregants called “Rabbi Joe,” was born in Rochester,...

Rabbi Bernard Lipnick was blessed with a unique baritone voice, which uplifted and inspired not only generations of members of Congregation B’nai Amoona, but the entire St. Louis Jewish community and the national movement of Conservative Judaism. Lipnick,...