This week’s Torah portion tells the story of when G-d gave the Ten Commandments to the Jewish People. It was the first and only time in Jewish history that G-d ever directly communicated with His people. However, oddly enough, the…
Tu B’Shevat: Tree-Hugging and Ecology in Jewish Tradition
Today, in Israel, cutting down a fig tree in Tzfat is not something you can get away with easily. Several years ago, I volunteered with the Israeli city’s municipality. One day, my fellow volunteers and I were tasked with helping…
Taste of Torah: Meaning in Matzah
Some of the most renowned Jewish practices are discussed in this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Bo. Our portion goes through the last three of the ten plagues, which took place in Egypt, and it then finishes off with the mitzvot…
Taste of Torah: Two Jews, three opinions? More like one Bible, four opinions!
One of the most perplexing questions that a student of Tanakh can ask is derived from two verses of this week’s Parsha. God appears to Moses, after the Egyptians refuse to let the Jews go and opens up with…
Separating a Person from their work: What do we do with Carlebach’s music?
One of the more obscure ‘secrets’ of the Jewish community involves the legacy of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. Anyone who has been to a Friday night prayer service has almost certainly sung some of the many tunes composed by Carlebach. Many…
Our Imperfect Memory
From Fall 2016 Print Edition, “Transitions” Imagine you were to enter a time machine and travel ten years into the past. To avoid drastically altering the course of history, you would, of course, be sure to keep yourself hidden and…
From Conservative Jew to JLIC President
From Fall 2016 Print Edition, “Transitions” I was raised in a Conservative Jewish household. My family and I attended services on a rather regular basis at our local synagogue, Congregation Beth Am of San Diego, and had Shabbat dinners on…
Pluralism and the Jewish Community
From Fall 2016 Print Edition, “Transitions” In our era, different societies and communities worldwide advocate pluralism heavily. Pluralism is a uniquely modern idea, in which a society allows — or even encourages — the coexistence of more than one system…
The End of Nietzsche: God Is Not Dead, But Undead
From Fall 2016 Print Edition, “Transitions” “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” Friedrich Nietzsche is most memorialized in popular philosophy by this catchy, contentious extract from The Gay Science, published in 1882. For all of…
Taste of Torah: Two Approaches to Life
Looking for some productive procrastination? Check out Rabbi Dr. Tal Sessler’s piece on this past week’s parashah, Toldot.