Judaism

‘Night of Beginnings:’ A Spiritually Moving and Thoughtful Haggadah Experience

Night of Beginnings: A Passover Haggadah; Text and art  by Maria Falk; Published March, 2022, University of Nebraska Press as a Jewish Publication Society book. By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. SAN DIEGO — When a Haggadah is written by a founding mother of feminist Judaism, as poet and author Marcia Falk is described, the reader

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell

Parashat Shemini-Parah: Kosher Laws and Spiritual Discipline

By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. SAN DIEGO — Of course, thousands of years before we began learning that “we are what we eat,” Judaism was already teaching the importance of the food we put inside of our bodies and its significance in living optimally. This week’s Torah education brings us a long list of nourishing

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell

Jewish Philosophers Believed in Truth, Whatever Its Source Might Be

Rabbi Samuel is also a prodigious author of books on Jewish religion, Jewish ethics, philosophy, and social issues. A recent book was God and the Pandemic, A Judaic Reflection on the Coronavirus.” Other works include sets of books on how both Philo and Maimonides understood each of the five books of the Torah. The two interpreters of the Jewish religion lived respectively in 1st Century Alexandria, Egypt, and in 12th Century Spain. [Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Scroll of Esther Honors Another Esther, Terror Victim Esther Horgen

By Toby Klein Greenwald It is always amazing to me how there are families who react to unbearable tragedy by creating something deeply meaningful and beautiful for the Jewish people and, indeed, for the world. This is what the family of Esther Horgen has done. Esther, 52, was brutally murdered by a terrorist on December

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Toby Klein Greenwald

Purim is Practiced Today Differently Than the Biblical Requirement

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — The current practice is that Purim is celebrated as a one-day holiday. Cities that were walled at the time of Joshua’s conquest of Israel – most notably Jerusalem – celebrate Purim on Adar 15, as a commemoration of the end of hostilities in the walled city

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Jewish Religion

Camp Leader at Auschwitz Details How She Helped Other Jewish Prisoners

If you hear of a Jew appointed to a position of authority at one of the Nazi concentration camps, what word comes immediately to mind? Is it “collaborator?” In “The Nazis Knew My Name,” the late Magda Hellinger tells of her experience being appointed first as a block leader and later as a camp leader by the Nazis during her three year incarceration in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex.  She relates that it was never her choice to be a block or camp leader, and that had she refused, she most likely would have been severely disciplined or sent to the gas chambers.  As a leader, she was expected to keep order in the block, and later in a full camp, or else.  [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History

There’s More Than One Kind of Mikvah for Conversion Ceremonies

However, there are other ways that the process of conversion can be completed, much closer to home, as Dr. Mark Scheller, an anesthesiologist, learned in 2015 when he waded from the shore of Chula Vista’s Bayside Park into the cold waters of San Diego Bay. [Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Purim: The Inside Face and the Outside Face

By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. SAN DIEGO — Purim. It’s our happiness, fun-filled, dramatic, costume-drinking-upside down-holiday. Many have the tradition to fast on the day before Purim (Fast of Esther). Some have the custom to give three coins to charity to recall the half-shekel donated annually to the Temple during Adar (Machatzit HaShekel), and this

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell