Lessons from Yom Kippur
With the craziness of the holidays (aka chagim), very often things on the Jewish schedule come to a halt. Classes are put on hiatus, work is nearly impossible to accomplish, […]
The Soulful Sounds Of Silence – By Marc
Rabbi Shlomo Seidenfeld sent out a powerful holiday message to the group I went to Israel with. In it, he talked about Maimonides and his notion that the blast of the […]
Structure of Prayer – Rosh Hashana — By Ben
A couple of weeks ago, I started going through the nuts and bolts of the Shemoneh Esrei. I mainly focused on the opening (1-3) and closing (17-19) sets of prayers […]
Forgiveness: To Give And Accept Or At Least Really Try – By Marc
The New Year is upon us… 5777 is around the corner… It is time to take stock of the things we did and did not do. A scary proposition for […]
Can You be Commanded to Love God? — By Ben
The month preceding Rosh Hashana is Elul. The rabbis say that the name Elul is an acronym for Ani l’dodi, u’dodi li or I am for my beloved, and my […]
Missing Bruce Springsteen… Choosing A Different American Idol – By Marc
Regular readers of this post know that there are two things that feed my soul… that enliven my spirituality… Judaism and Music. Before my trip to Israel I would have […]
The Structure of Prayer — By Ben
Now that we’re in the month of Elul, Rosh Hashana is just around the corner. This time last year I did a blog post outlining the core of the prayer […]
Psalm Reading… Not Palm Reading – By Marc
Here is the full title of this piece: “Psalm Reading… Not Palm Reading – And Age Is So Much More Than A Number!” My good friend and holy brother Salvador […]
Shoftim – Kingly Indulgence — By Ben
In an election year, when you come across anything in Torah that speaks about government and rulers, it’s hard not to take special notice. And this week’s Torah portion has […]
Mirror, Mirror: Seeing the Worst in Ourselves in Others. — By Ben
Originally I was going to write about something else entirely this week, but after reading the tremendous guest post by Barbara Heller from yesterday, I decided to piggy back off […]
Six Degrees Of Kosher Bacon 