Category: Random Reflections
Hanukkah: Eight Candles, Eight Interpretations On Civil War
More than ever before we are reminded that Hanukkah is more than a miracle of eight days of oil, more than dreidles, more than latkes or suvganiot, and more than Hanukkah gelt of either...
Yom Kippur Blanket Forgiveness — Can That Work?
Can blanket forgiveness bring peace to the forgiver? Forgiveness involves releasing demands for retribution. Seeking retribution is accompanied by strong emotion still attached to the situation and the individual is not yet ready to...
Yom Kippur Blanket Apology — Sincere Or A Pointless Temporary Fix?
A sincere apology has four components. The blanket apology has none. There is a way to turn the Yom Kippur blanket apology into one that can be sincere. * * * * * I...
Why I Am Going To Drown My Apple In Honey This Year
The apple and honey we ceremoniously eat on Rosh HaShana can have many meanings. The one that spoke to me most was written up by Australian Rabbi Aron Moss. He said the apple, a...
Hanukkah Then and Now: Let’s Not Be So Naive
Hanukkah commemorates the Hasmonean victory in the battle for the soul of the Jews in Judaea against the Greeks who tried to quash it. However, the victory is a dubious one. We ignore the...
Torah Ambivalence Toward Rape – Deuteronomy 21:10-14
The Torah seems to sanction rape as an unfortunate natural urge in the human male. Upon what do I base this horrid statement? Do contemporary rabbinic scholars make any attempt to help us get...
Passover: the 10th Plague & Protecting Our Kids
The story of Passover has many lessons in it – lessons for all times and all places and all contexts. I would like to share something I gleaned from my reading of Exodus 12:1-13,...
