By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — In the early years of his life the patriarch, Jacob, was not a paragon of virtue. He came out of Rebecca’s womb hanging on to the heel of his older twin, Esau. He tried, in vain, to keep Esau from becoming the first born. A few years later,
Who did Jacob fight throughout the night? Read More »
Jewish ReligionNEW YORK (Press Release)– The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed disappointment that George W. Bush has decided to move ahead with plans to speak at a fundraising event in Texas for an evangelical group that aims to convert Jews to Christianity. The former president is scheduled to speak on November 14 at a fundraiser for the
ADL ‘disappointed’ Bush to address ‘Messianic Jews’ Read More »
Jewish ReligionNEW YORK (Press Release) — Bonhams will offer two extraordinarily rare 1790 newspaper clippings in the inaugural Judaica sale on December 10, documenting President George Washington’s visit to the Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI, the oldest surviving Jewish Synagogue building in North America (est. $80,000-100,000). The experience would inspire Washington’s famous quote, “To bigotry no
George Washington’s Touro press clippings up for auction Read More »
Jewish History
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung point out that it is through dreams we can better understand the unconscious mind. “Dreams” said Freud, “are the royal road to the unconscious.” The Talmud itself attests, “A dream that it is not interpreted is like a letter that
The two dreams of Jacob Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-RabbiBy Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO–After Jacob tricked Isaac into giving him Esau’s blessing, Jacob fled to Haran to escape his brother’s wrath. One night he stopped to rest. He lay his head on a stone, fell asleep, and dreamed. In his dream he saw a ladder with angels going up and down. God appeared
The care of holy places Read More »
Jewish Religion
By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO –It started as a joke. I was on the way out the door to work one day when my wife told me to take my hat and raincoat. “It’s going to rain today” I said, “But it’s nice out now. I’ll take my chances.” I came home soaked. A
Who makes the rain, daddy? Read More »
Jewish ReligionBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Rabbi Kamin’s interesting article on the subject of Halloween reminded me of many of my own childhood experiences. Is Halloween “permitted”? Is the children’s ritual of “Trick and Treating,” considered forbidden because it emulates the practices of the non-Jewish world? Many years ago, a learned colleague
Halloween superstitious? How about tefillin and mezuzot? Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-RabbiLA JOLLA, California– Susan Magee, author of Into the Light, a pictorial biography of artist Kalman Aron, speaks at the San Diego Jewish Book Fair today (Tuesday, Nov. 5). Here is a video about the artist whose work has been greatly influenced by surviving the Holocaust.
Kalman Aron: Survivor and artist subject of Book Fair talk Read More »
Jewish HistoryBy Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — Sharing is a difficult concept for young children to understand and embrace. “Mine!” When my older grandson was around 18 months old, I brought him to our Shekhter Playground while preschool was in session. He made a beeline for one of the toy trucks. When another toddler eagerly
The spiritual battle between Jacob and Esau Read More »
Jewish ReligionBy Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO– Yitzchak, son of Rav Shlomo, Rabbi of Vienna, was once walking in a forest park on the outskirts of Vienna. He was immersed in thought, mentally reviewing his Talmud studies. He enjoyed these walks so that he could concentrate and clarify the finer points of his lessons. On this
Was this shidduch made in heaven? Read More »
Jewish ReligionBy Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California –A 2009 Coen brothers movie, A Serious Man, would have no premise whatsoever without its extended opening, supernatural sequence featuring a “dybbuk” (an evil spirit in the form of a recently deceased person) visiting an unfortunate and hapless couple. Bad luck and spooky things then plague the family for
Who says Halloween isn’t Jewish? Read More »
Jewish ReligionThe Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery by Captain Witold Pilecki, Translated from the original 1945 report by Jarek Garliński, Aquila Polonica (U.S.) Ltd., Los Angeles; ISBN 978-1-60772-009-6 ©2012, $34.95, p. 401, including pictures, maps, appendices, index, and discussion questions By Fred Reiss WINCHESTER, California — On September 10, 1940, the German battleship Bismarck fired six shells
The Pole who volunteered to be imprisoned at Auschwitz Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish HistoryBy Aryeh Savir For the first time ever in Israel, more than 200 of the rarest and most important Biblical manuscripts and texts are on display in Israel in an historic exhibition, titled “The Book of Books,” at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. On display are the original fragments from the Septuagint, the earliest
Earliest Bibles now in traveling display Read More »
Jewish ReligionThe Jews and Germans of Hamburg; The Destruction of a Civilization, 1790-194 by J.A.S. Grenville; Routledge, London and New York, 2012, 330 pp. By Dorothea Shefer Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — This thorough study of the history of the city-state of Hamburg, a thriving Hanseatic port in north Germany, describes in almost unbearable detail the
Hamburg’s Jewish history told Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish History