Michael Mantell

By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. SAN DIEGO — This high-holiday season may have been just the spark some needed to awaken – or re-awaken — their Jewish heritage. Still others remain in the midst of great spiritual strivings during the upcoming auspicious days of Succot and Simchat Torah. Wherever you are personally, no matter. What

By Michael R. Mantell, PhD SAN DIEGO — According to Jewish tradition, on the tenth day of the Hebrew month Tishri, Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the second set of tablets of the Ten Commandments after Hashem forgave the Jews for the sin of worshipping the golden calf.  That day is called Yom Kippur,

By Michael R. Mantell, PhD SAN DIEGO — There is nothing so Jewish as self-improvement.  And all this time, you thought gefilte fish or bagels and lox were the ultimate Jewish experience.  No, you see, when it comes to improving yourself, making yourself into an elevated, more refined, more civil person, nothing in psychology has ever

By Michael R. Mantell, PhD SAN DIEGO — According to Jewish tradition, on the tenth day of the Hebrew month Tishri, Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the second set of tablets of the Ten Commandments after Hashem forgave the Jews for the sin of worshipping the golden calf.  That day is called Yom

By Michael R. Mantell, PhD SAN DIEGO — I recently went on the Rabbinical Assembly website and found 15 prayerbooks. Prayerbooks. Fifteen of them. Who needs fifteen different prayerbooks? I guess the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative/Masorti rabbis believes we, the members of Conservative congregations worldwide, need them. But fifteen? Seriously? This got me

By Michael R. Mantell, PhD SAN DIEGO — What lesson have we not learned from one of the most basic principles in Judaism, “Love your fellow Jew as yourself”?  It’s preached on pulpit after pulpit, regardless of the sex of the rabbi, the color of the rabbi’s talit, whether the rabbi wears a kippah or not,