By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO –Twenty four thousand talmidim (students) of Rebbi Akiva perished in a horrible plague. These were the best and the brightest. It was a devastating blow to the leadership, to the entire existance of Klal Yisroel. Hashem in His infinite mercy enabled our nation to rebuild after this tragedy. Torah […]
Power of Torah Judaism demonstrated at Dachau Read More »
Jewish Religion
By Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb NEW YORK — He was a character straight out of the novels of Charles Dickens. Scholars have long found Dickens’ attitude toward Jews problematic. The character Fagin in the novel Oliver Twist is certainly a negative stereotype. But many are unaware of the character named Riah in Dickens’ last completed
Lessons that peddlers have taught to rabbis Read More »
Jewish Religion
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Haredim and archaeologists in the Holy Land have never been especially fond of each other. Traditionally, they are a little bit like meat and milk. By themselves, each is fine. However, when they get together, they create a combustive chemistry. Whenever an archeological excavation takes place,
Haredim grapple with archaelogy and other sciences Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi
By J. Zel Lurie DELRAY BEACH, Florida –Jews come in many shapes and colors. One of the strangest is the Karaites, founded in the 7th century by a charismatic Jew named Anan Ben David. He totally rejected the holiness of the Talmud and strictly obeyed only the 613 mitzvot found in the Torah. The Karaite
The mysteries of the Cairo codex Read More »
Jewish History, Jewish ReligionBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California —In this week’s parsha we read about the death of Aaron’s two sons, who died from an accidental explosion in the Tabernacle. Aaron’s reaction is quite telling–despite the absence of scriptural detail from the narrator. As is often the case with biblical narrative, more is said by
Sometimes God’s seeming indifference shocks us to silence Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi
The Essential Guide to Jewish Prayer and Practices by Andrea Lieber; ISBN 978-1-61564-138-3 ©2012, $16.95, p. 316, including appendices and index Jewish Liturgy and its Development by A. Z. Idelsohn; ISBN 978-0-486-28648-8 2012 reprint by Dover Publications, Inc., New York of ©1931, p. 404, including appendices, notes, and index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California
Two guides explain Jewish worship services Read More »
Jewish ReligionRabbi Baruch Lederman By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO — The Torah tells us that we cannot eat just any animal, bird, or fish. It has to be kosher. But don’t worry, even though the Torah prohibits us from many many foods, there is still plenty of kosher food to be found. Just have a
Can we believe 100 percent in an outcome? Read More »
Jewish ReligionBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Our tradition is a tapestry of stories. Every generation weaves its own unique color and threads as we make a mosaic about our history and family memories. Whenever our family of survivors told us about their experiences in the concentration camps, I used to marvel at their
The story behind a winning smile Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-RabbiBy Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb NEW YORK –He was an old man, and in many ways came from a very different world than I. And yet he taught me more than anyone else ever did. One of the things he taught me was that no one suffers as much as a parent who loses a
Aaron remained silent Read More »
Jewish ReligionBy Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM — A few days ago, within a week of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, my mother’s youngest brother passed away. His passing made me reflect on the long tentacles of the Shoah that leaves its mark on lives until today. Isi was the youngest of five children, born in 1926
Kindertransport child felt uprooted the rest of his life Read More »
International, Jewish History, Jewish ReligionBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Among the non‑Orthodox rabbis who were placed in the concentration camps, Rabbi Leo Baeck provides one of the most outstanding examples of shepherding of that era. Baeck’s saintly conduct served as an inspiration to all who were with him in the camp. In the years prior
Rabbi Leo Baeck never left the Jewish people’s side Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-RabbiBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California –Nothing challenges the belief in a benevolent God like the ubiquity of evil in the world. For the Jewish people, the experience of the Holocaust revealed the inadequacy of traditional theology. The God of the Exodus seemed “to be out for lunch.” Asked in more simple and
Remembering a rabbi who would not forget his fellow Jews Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO–Spirits droop these days—there are mass shootings, racial flare-ups, and governmental genocides in Syria and elsewhere. We live with a sense of vulnerability as the climate behaves capriciously. Less dangerous but still burdensome, we endure an endless political polarization here in America that drives the presidential campaign, which also
Discerning day from night Read More »
Jewish Religion
VISTA, California (Press Release) — A capacity crowd attended Congregation B’nai Tikvah’s annual, “2nd Night Seder” Saturday evening, April 7. Congregation B’nai Tikvah was honored to host a very special guest, Corporal Samuel Roochnik from Bethesda, MD, who is currently stationed at Camp Pendleton Marine Base. The seder, officiated by B’nai Tikvahs’ Rabbi Ben Leinow was “lively, entertaining and spiritually moving,” according
A Passover welcome for a Marine away from home Read More »
Jewish Religion