Jewish Religion

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — After receiving last week’s D’var Torah about hamantaschen, my son, Rabbi Adam Rosenthal, emailed me noting that I was already avoiding dealing with the text of Leviticus, which is primarily concerned with the laws of animal sacrifices, in my weekly column. Since I am on a streak, why […]

By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEG0 — The local baker was plotting to poison the Jews of Prague. His fiendish plan was to use our own holiday against us. He knew that the  Jews did not eat bread during that holiday of Pesach, and that the day after the holiday, they came in droves to

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. (Press Release)–Congregation Beth Am and Temple Solel in San Diego County, California, have partnered with Behrman House, the leading publisher of textbooks and multi-media educational materials for Jewish religious schools, to bring the company’s Online Learning Center (OLC) to the fingertips of Hebrew students and teachers alike. Behrman House introduced the OLC last year

By Rabbi Jack Abramowitz NEW YORK — “Now, the man Moshe was very humble, more so than any person on the face of the Earth”  – Numbers 12:3 A famous and familiar verse. But if Moshe Rabbeinu is our role model for humility, who is our Biblical exemplar for ego? There are a lot of

  By Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb  NEW YORK — The world did not know that he was a mystic. He was an accomplished diplomat, who knew how to deal with people in positions of great power. Some characterized him as a shrewd, and even manipulative, manager of men. His name was Dag Hammarskjold, and he

By Danny Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — The term “armageddon” — the imagined ”final battle” before the end opf the world — comes to us modern Jews from a word found in the Christian Book of Revelation where the apostle John writes about a monstrous war, noting  “And they gathered them together to the place

By Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — Regardless of its affiliation, a House of God is just that. Years ago, after a synagogue in Cleveland abruptly dismissed me as its spiritual leader, I discovered tenderness and healing in a regal old church. My daughter Sari and I were returning from what had been a pleasant—but

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — As Pesach approaches, we need to clean the chametz out of our lives. There is some leftover Hamantaschen business in my life that I need to dispose of. Right before Purim I wrote an article about Hamantaschen. I explained the origins of the triangular cookie, but said I

By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO — A newlywed couple in Jerusalem was spending their first Passover Seder at her parents. The girl was from a very prominent religious family. The boy was a budding Torah scholar. Both came from families of sterling character and reputation. During the meal, the young man noticed something floating

  By Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb NEW YORK —  “I was wrong. I am sorry. Please forgive me.” These are rare words indeed, but I heard them pronounced clearly by a woman I once worked for, and whom I still admire. She was the superintendent of a small school district just outside of Washington, DC. Several

   By Leah R. Singer   SAN DIEGO — It may come as a surprise that Jews and Arabs both call Kentucky home. Even more of a shock, however, is the women of these two very different immigrants groups are actually quite similar as each struggle with negotiating their identities.  Growing up in Kentucky as