Reform. Conservative. Reconstructionist. Orthodox. Unaffiliated. Just Jewish. Not that Jewish. We all have been asked the question before, “What kind of Jew are you?” And we’ve all responded, sometimes enthusiastically and sometimes hesitantly, with how we label ourselves. Imagine if…
Tu’ B’shevat: Fruit for Thought and Wellness
While we may not feast on the greasy and fatty foods we look forward to scarfing down during other holidays, on Tu’ B’shevat we celebrate the one Jewish holiday where healthy eating habits are encouraged to honor the day, the…
Look For God
In the very beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Beshalach, God takes the Jewish people out of the land of Egypt in order to bring them to Eretz Israel. One way to get to Eretz Israel was to cross through…
Keep the Labels on Food, Not Ourselves or Each Other
Click here to see Ha’Am’s Fall 2017 Print Edition: “Growing Pains” There are a surprising number of labels that a Jewish person can use to describe their Jewish identity. It can range anywhere from the typical “Orthodox,” “Conservative,” and “Reform” denominations, to…
The Hanukkah Heroine: Lost in Translation
2017 — what a year for women! Well, maybe not all women (sorry Hillary), but it was definitely a year of breaking the cliché fairy tale storyline and of redefining the character of a “leading” lady. Between Israel’s very own…
Taste of Torah: The Morality of Collective Punishment
Should ordinary citizens in a society be held accountable for the negative actions of their leaders? This type of question is consistently discussed by sociologists, moral philosophers and military strategists alike. One can find thousands of pages, written over the…
Taste of Torah: Battle It Out or Can You Dig It?
This week’s Parsha is the only one that is dedicated to our second patriarch, Isaac, yet to a causal reader of the Torah text he remains largely an enigma. Mostly passive, the only noteworthy episode of Isaac’s life described by…
Taste of Torah: A Million Questions
Does it help a husband and wife to decide not to argue? Or, in the long run, is it better that they agree to disagree? So substitute “God and Israel” for “husband and wife.” In Vayera we are told that…
Taste of Torah: Go For Yourself
Sometimes we need to go for ourselves, to get to ourselves.
Taste of Torah: Creating a Window in your Life
Moti Zilberstein is an undergraduate student at UCLA In the very beginning of this week’s Torah portion, G-d tells Noach, “You shall make for yourself a “Tzohar” [usually translated as “a window”] in the Ark” (Genesis 6:16). But what does…