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the why of anti-Jewish bigotry

Recently my 12-year-old son asked me, “Mom, why does everyone hate Jewish people?” I realized I don’t have an answer to his question beyond, “Ignorance and irrationality.” I honestly hadn’t spent much...

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antisemitism from the inside

My father wasn't Jewish, but my mother was. My mother wanted to keep our Jewishness underground. Although she never defined what being Jewish meant, probably because she didn't know, she seemed to...

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D'Var Torah: Bo ("Come")

“If one wishes to contaminate himself, the way is opened for him.” – Ibn Ezra This week’s installment of Torah recounts the last plagues God brings upon the Pharaoh, the establishment of the first Rosh...

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The Actions Which Point to One's Faith

From My Jewish LibraryA year or so ago, I began a series on Duties of the Heart, the 11th century classic by R'Bachya ibn Paquda of Spain. (I may have written those diaries before Street Prophets was...

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D’var Torah:Terumah "An Offering"

Does it help you to know that the Talmud says in Olam Ha Ba, The World to Come (the Afterlife), God corrects the injustices of this upside-down world?NO?

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Purim: Expect the Unexpected

Sometimes known as “the Jewish Mardi Gras,” Purim is a study in opposites, an inversion of appearances. It is about the unseen forces that shape our lives, the unexpected miracles, and the hope they...

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Welcoming Elijah

With Passover coming up I thought now might be a nice time for an Elijah story. His name means “Yah is my God” (El-i Yahu) and he was a prophet in Israel in the 9th century BCE. He was an activist of...

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White-Out

To those who care about social and economic justice and racial equality (especially those white people who grew up with the kind of sanitized version of American history I was exposed to) I recommend...

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D'var Torah: Chukat

Numbers 19:1 - 22:1 The acts of the leader are the acts of the nation. If the leader is just, the nation is just; if he is unjust, the nation too is unjust and is punished for the sin of the leader –...

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a window on renewal

….the world is governed neither by malevolence nor by a set of contending forces, in which evil and good have an equal chance of triumphing, but rather by a Force for good that is the Source of the...

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About Derech Eretz

Our actions – more than our thoughts, feelings, or intentions – affect the people around us. We become conduits for Divine energy and influence to the extent that we are able to treat others with...

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D'var Torah: Ki Teitzei

"When you go out"In this parasha we find a variety of instructions regarding interpersonal ethics, civil and criminal law. Make a fence on your home so no one falls off and breaks his neck. Chase a hen...

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Conflict Addiction?

You know how sometimes you visit a news website, and you read the articles, and then you read the comments, and almost everyone in the comments is being nasty, vitriolic, irrational? The more...

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Befriending the Talmud, Pt. 1

The "written" Torah, or TaNaK, contains the Five Books of Moses, Nevi'im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings, or scrolls).The "oral" Torah, or Mishna, began long before the Hebrews were taken to Babylon...

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Befriending the Talmud, Pt. 2

According to tradition, Israel was a small tribe under the Patriarchs. We lost our freedom in Egypt, sprouted a new nation under Moses and Joshua, and continued as such until the end of Solomon's...

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Befriending the Talmud, Pt. 3

The fervor and dedication applied to the interpretation of the Torah was a lot like a thousand-year chess tournament of International Grand Masters in which every square and every piece and every move...

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Befriending the Talmud, Pt. 4 (A Living God)

R’ Abraham Joshua Heschel begins God in Search of Man with the following words:    It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society....

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On Being Broken

Maybe you feel broken. I always have. From the time I was a small child, it was clear that I was not wanted and there was no place for me in the world. I felt worthless then, and fifty years later, I...

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D'var Torah Noach: Free Will in Context

We learn in Genesis 6:08, immediately before Noah, that God worried creating humanity and the world was a mistake. In 6:11 we learn "the earth had become corrupt before God." What makes a person the...

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D'var Torah Vayeitzei: Departed

This Torah portion begins with Jacob’s departure to travel to Laban’s home. Rashi says, “A righteous person’s departure from a place leaves a void. As long as this person lives in a city, he...

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