Judaism

Torah

Blessing the People With Love and Joy

Local

Does Birthright Stifle Teen Travel?

Shavuot

Synagogues Celebrate New Arrivals

Torah

Must Jews Spread Religion Far and Wide?

Yitro, Exodus 18:1-20:23

By:

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

"And Yitro said, 'Blessed is the Lord who has saved you from the hand of Egypt and from the hand of Pharaoh ... ' " In the past, I've commented upon the fact that the biblical portion that records the divine revelation at Sinai -- the Ten Commandments, the foundation of our faith and our morality -- opens with praise...

Synagogue Life

Yeshiva U. Gets Into the Matchmaking Biz

By:

Aaron Passman, JE Feature

In 2006, after leading a congregation in Birmingham, Ala., for nearly a decade, Rabbi Avraham Shmidman was looking to make a move. But how to go about finding that next job? After all, there's not exactly a CareerBuilder.com for rabbis. That's where Yeshiva University's Center for the Jewish Future comes in, specifically the Morris and Gertrude Bienenfeld Department of Jewish...

Environment

Activism Takes Tu B'Shevat to New Levels

Working to Tread Lightly on the Earth

By:

Aaron Passman, JE Feature

The Tu B'Shevat seder Elaine Cohen oversees at her synagogue is a tradition that goes back nearly 20 years. Between 15 and 30 people attend the annual event, and this year's meal, like others, will feature the traditional four cups of wine, as well as emphasize nuts and fruit -- products of the trees the meal celebrates. Seders like these...

Torah

The Enemy's Also a Human Being

BESHALACH, Exodus 13:17-17:16

By:

Rabbi Joyce Newmark

The Haftorah for Beshalach tells the story of Deborah and her general Barak, how they defeated a Canaanite army under the command of Sisera and how the fleeing Canaanite general was killed by the Kenite woman Yael. Women figure prominently in this episode, and we meet one more at the end of the Haftorah. For example: "Through the window peered...

Torah

Plagues Are Like Death, Death Is Like a Plague

BO, Exodus 10:1-13:16

By:

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman

"Avoid clichés like the plague," notes New York Times columnist William Safire, illustrating the clichés he warns against, while also pointing to this week's Torah reading, which is, after all, about plagues. They are real plagues, though, not metaphoric ones; and that is what prompts Safire's caution. If anything we wish to avoid can be likened to a plague, we...