Below are the names of writers who are currently active. For others, living and deceased, please type their name into the search box above the masthead on our home page, www.sdjewishworld.com
Abel is dead, killed by his brother Cain, who confesses to God soon after the murder (Gen. 4:1-16). The proximate cause, God accepting Abel’s sacrifice, but rejecting Cain’s. Yet are these sixteen lines of biblical text the whole story? [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]
Rabbi Puts Cain on Trial for Slaying Abel Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion
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]
A Rabbi’s Questions about Adam and Eve Read More »
Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion
The 14th season of Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices launched last Monday evening with an outstanding program that attracted 70 attendees on Zoom. It opened with poetry read by local psychologist and poet, Richard Alan Schere. A sample of his offerings, Echo, can be read below. It is a poem that should be on the desks of all politicians as they contemplate their actions regarding climate change. Other Schere poems showed a lighter side with a fine-tuned sense of humor. Schere has made recordings and his work is in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. We were fortunate to have such an accomplished poet open our series. [Eileen Wingard]
One Poet Mourns Earth; Others Sing Songs of Immigration Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, San Diego County
I shot the vandals, when I made myself a deputy.
I shot the vandals, shield property from jeopardy.
Walking through Kenosha town
Pointing my rifle all around. … [Laurie Baron, Ph.D]
Satire: ‘I Shot the Vandals’ Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire
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]
Did Jacob Actually Wrestle with an Angel? Or Was It a Vision? Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-RabbiOver the past 50 years, my wife Bonnie and I have shared our homes with six cats. The first was a beautiful seal point Siamese paradoxically named Whitey bequeathed to us by friends intent on stopping their baby from playing in her litter box. In one of her former lives she must have been a dog. She fetched balled up pieces of paper, followed us around like a shadow, and emitted piercing yowls. Siamese are lookers, not singers! [Laurie Baron, Ph.D]
Mercury Baron: Our Last Cat (For Now) Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Lifestyles, San Diego County, The World We Share
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]
Dolly Parton Inspired the PJ Library Program for Jewish Children Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Judaism, Lifestyles, USAAs with all of the prior men and women mentioned in the Bible, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, patriarchs whom we might expect that the Torah would give us plenty of information about, there is nothing about Isaac’s wife Rebekah that is crystal clear. Every fact and every event is obscure. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
Questions Linger about Rebekah Read More »
Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion
We cannot argue with Nancy Pelosi: “When a member uses his or her national platform to encourage violence, tragically, people listen.” Whenever her Democratic colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives bash Israel and by association American Jews, they are inciting violence throughout the United States, as it trembles under the crush of antisemitism. However, the Speaker of the House was addressing the sins of Rep. Paul Gosar. [Bruce S. Ticker]
Gosar Is Censured But Why Not Omar and Tlaib? Read More »
Bruce Ticker, Middle East, USA
While sitting and reading a book about three weeks ago, I felt a sharp pain in my lower abdomen and looked down to see a golf ball size bulge protruding out of it. Since I had a hernia 25 years ago, I immediately thought it had recurred, though my cinematic imagination made me fear it was the larval form of the creature from Alien beginning to erupt through my skin and scamper around my house. My quandary was whether to go to urgent care or contact Segourney Weaver. [Laurie Baron, Ph.D]
Humoring the Hernia Read More »
Lawrence Baron, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Trivia, Humor & Satire
Author Ethan Michaeli is an American journalist with a knack for schmoozing with people wherever he goes. While he lives in Chicago, his older brother and parents live in Israel. He travels frequently to Israel to see his Hungarian-born parents and his brother, and whenever he does so, he likes to go touring around the country, meeting people from as many different backgrounds as possible. [Donald H. Harrison]
Sampling Israel’s Ethnic Groups and Restaurants Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, Travel and Food
The National Park Service has agreed to a request from the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation (JASHP) to include mention of Adolph Sutro’s Jewish heritage on a marker at Sutro Heights Park in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, JASHP announced on Wednesday, Nov. 17. [SDJW]
Sutro Heights Park Marker to Honor Sutro’s Jewish Heritage Read More »
Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, USA
This week’s Torah reading has more passukim, 154 verses, than any other in Sefer Bereishis. There must be a good reason, and indeed, there are many lessons from which we can derive benefit inside the depth of these many verses. The parasha is bursting with scheming, compromise, desire, retaliation, hostility, birth, and death. [Michael Mantell, Ph.D]
Torah Reading for November 20, 2021 Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell
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]
Celebrating Diversity in Zichron Yaakov Read More »
Gedaliah Borvick, Jewish History, Middle East