Judaism

Genesis Prize Foundation Honors Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Posthumously

The Genesis Prize Foundation honored the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks with the Genesis Lifetime Achievement Award.  The award recognizes Lord Sacks for his extraordinary role in inspiring the next generation of Jews, and his illustrious life-long work as a teacher of Jewish values and an advocate of inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue. [Genesis Prize Foundation News Release]

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International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East

Parashat Vayeishev: Predictable Unpredictability

You’ve heard it many times, “Man plans, G-d laughs.” Or perhaps, like me, you’ve heard this version, “Mentsch tracht, Gott lacht.” I like “Man thinks, G-d Winks.” Regardless, like all of us who prefer to live without being mutchet or tcheppeht, (pressured or bothered), Jacob found that life has its challenges and disappointments. Just when we think all is well in our family, in our career, in our lives, G-d shows us that He has another lesson for us to learn. It seems the only thing predictable about life is how unpredictable it can be. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell

A Rabbi’s Questions about Adam and Eve

The very introduction to the Bible is obscure. We would have expected the introduction to tell us why God created the world and what God expects from humans, a problem that bothered the famous Bible commentator Rashi (1040-1105), but instead chapters 1 and 2 and other parts of the Bible are obscure, as can be seen in the following items. The obscurities are apparently purposely opaque to prompt us to think, and by thinking improve ourselves and society. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

A Cantor Says A Final Goodbye to the Grandfather Who Inspired Him

I flew to London last Wednesday, to say goodbye to my 97-year-old Grandpa. Although I usually see my grandparents half a dozen times a year, the pandemic has made it so that I haven’t been able to see them for two and half years. I entered their new assisted living apartment and went straight to my grandfather’s bed. Without hesitation I began to sing our favorite Yiddish song “Oy vey fein”. Immediately he chimed in and sang with me for about fifteen seconds. [Cantor Hanan Liberman]

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International, Jewish History, Obituaries & memorials

Did Jacob Actually Wrestle with an Angel? Or Was It a Vision?

Jacob’s wrestling with the angel is arguably one of the most famous images we encounter in the Torah. Commentaries since rabbinical times wondered: Did it really occur? Or did Jacob imagine it? Maimonides’ interpretation is novel; he offers a view that Freud and Jung have found fascinating. Although we tend to think of psychology as beginning with Freud, medieval scholars such as Maimonides and Aquinas possessed a remarkable understanding of human psychology. Here is one such example from Maimonides Guide for the Perplexed 2:42. [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi

Dolly Parton Inspired the PJ Library Program for Jewish Children

Jewish books from the PJ Library are mailed free every month to 680,000  Jewish children to be read to them at bedtime by their parents or guardians.  Yes, you can thank Harold  Grinspoon, the Massachusetts real estate entrepreneur who funds much of this philanthropy, along with Winnie Sandler Grinspoon, his daughter-in-law who serves as president of his Foundation. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Judaism, Lifestyles, USA

Gaming Site, ‘Torah Live,’ Enlivens Jewish Education

Torah Live’s graphics, animation and film level are highly professional and their team of men and women includes over thirty scriptwriters, animators, video editors, and sound and special effects artists. While the world was in lockdown, Torah Live kicked in big time. Since Covid over a million and a half videos have been viewed, and the website has been accessed by 168,000 active users. It has hundreds of thousands of viewers from around North America and the world, including in Moscow, Paris, London, Australia, and South Africa, and including 117 in San Diego, a number the Torah Live people hope will continue to grow. {Toby Klein Greenwald]

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International, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Toby Klein Greenwald, USA

Celebrating Diversity in Zichron Yaakov

Located twenty miles south of Haifa, Zichron Yaakov is a charming city of 25,000 people situated on the southern end of the Carmel Mountain range. One of the oldest cities in modern Israel, it was established at the end of 1882 by one hundred pioneers from Romania, members of the Hovevei Tzion – or Lovers of Zion – movement. Hovevei Tzion was one of several organizations that gained traction in Europe in response to the waves of pogroms and openly antisemitic laws that had the cumulative effect of causing approximately 2,000,000 Jews to relocate, a minority of whom made their way to Israel. [Gedaliah Borvick]

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Gedaliah Borvick, Jewish History, Middle East