The holiday of Passover is a celebration of liberation. Today, when even those who are authoritarian in goal and in practice claim to be liberators, this millennia-old holiday offers testimony about what real liberation is. The Story First of all,…
Editor’s Note: A version of this article was published on March 26, 2021. The eight-day biblical festival of Pesach (Hebrew for Passover) begins this Friday night, April 15 (Exodus 12). It is the central family event in Judaism, the Seder…
First off, let’s recognize and understand — in full disclosure — that I am not necessarily a typical rabbi. I bring with me only the following credentials over the years: six years on the executive committee of the Rabbinical Council…
All things are deeply interconnected. The oneness that is God’s underlies and sets its mark on all God’s creation. However, that oneness is rarely obvious without a lot of digging. This is our lot, says the Bible — Man was…
Part Six: What Jews Who Know Authentic Judaism Believe: The Architecture of Judaism — The Talmud, the Halakhic Codes, and Authoritative Rabbinic Responsa (For Ellen of blessed memory.) This is a ten-part series of online articles that, with G-d’s…
Part Five: What Jews Who Know Authentic Judaism Believe: The Oral Law and Written Law (For Ellen of blessed memory.) This is a ten-part series of online articles that, with G-d’s help, I hope to transform into a larger book….
In 1999, I practiced complex civil business litigation at the Los Angeles offices of one of the 10 most prominent law firms in California: Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe. Heller Ehrman was the most left-wing major law firm you could…
I have an Orthodox rabbinic colleague on the American political left, one of the very few still to be found among American Orthodox Jews. The latest Pew survey has us at 75 percent Republican conservative. Others had us at 83 percent for Trump. Even 90…
The Talmud tells us in Tractate Pesachim 49b that, as bad as non-Jewish anti-Semitism can get, no one hates Jews of authenticity as deeply and severely as do other Jews who are outside the pale of Judaic knowledge. With this week’s…
