By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — While I am not a political junkie, from time to time I do watch the candidates debate. They are often unintentionally entertaining. One of my favorite exchanges took place during the Republican primary debate on January 26, 2012 in Jacksonville, Florida. It was an exchange between [...]
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — On Tuesday night I shared a fascinating lesson plan from Yad Vashem (Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority) with my Community Jewish High students. The lesson juxtaposed two reports from a transport that carried Jews from Dusseldorf, Germany to Riga, Latvia that left on December 11, 1941. [...]
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO–Some of our seder customs were originally introduced to help children pay attention during the service (for example the youngest child asking the Four Questions and the hide and seek game played with the afikoman). Over the years most of us have found it is just as challenging to keep [...]
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — Although we are free from the physical bondage our ancestors suffered in Egypt, this does not mean that we are no longer enslaved. I realized this during a recent trip I took out of the country. Judy and I were vacationing in a city where our cell phones [...]
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — Does the end ever justify the means? Not according to the Torah. One may not fulfill a religious obligation (a mitzvah) through unethical or immoral action. Our sages called this a mitzvah ha-ba’ah ba-aveirah, a mitzvah that is performed through a sinful act. One of the places our [...]
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — Parashat Ki Tissa contains the verses we love to sing every Friday night, V’shamru: “The Israelite people shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout the ages as a covenant for all time. It shall be a sign between Me and the people of Israel. For in six [...]
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — On Wednesday evening, March 7, we begin the celebration of the holiday of Purim which commemorates the victory of the Jews over their enemies in ancient Persia. Once the hero of the story, Mordechai, finds out that Haman has received the king’s permission to kill the Jews, he [...]
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — Last weekend Judy and I visited our son, daughter-in-law, and grandsons in Cincinnati. We had a great time. Before we returned home, I was faced with an interesting ethical dilemma. On Monday afternoon we ate lunch at Cincinnati’s beautiful Mayerson JCC. The JCC operates a kosher café. [...]
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — Whenever I teach theology I love to ask students: who played the voice of Moses in the Dreamworks movie, The Prince of Egypt? If no one knows I tell them: Moses was voiced by Val Kilmer. Then I ask them who played the voice of God? If no [...]
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — This week I wanted to write about Miriam, Moses’ and Aaron’s sister. The Torah records that after the Children of Israel crossed the Sea of Reeds in their escape from Pharaoh, “Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went [...]
