Jewish Religion

By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO — After the splitting of the Red Sea, it was necessary for the children of Israel to see the lifeless bodies of the Egyptian soldiers as they were washed ashore. Otherwise they would never feel deep down that they were free. The trauma of bondage leaves a life long 

By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO – Moshe accomplished his great mission. He liberated the Jews from the bondage of Mitzrayim (Egypt). One could feel that his accomplishment was offset by the fact that most of the Jews in Egypt never made it to the promised land. Most of them perished along the way. The

 By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — The Neturei Karta cannot bear looking at the face of a woman—whether a real woman, or merely the image of a woman’s face, which they find “erotic.” The philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas observed that the face is the only part of the body that we see in

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO–When a child becomes Bar or Bat Mitzvah, one of the first mitzvot for which they assume responsibility is tefillin. One of the verses which the rabbis say refers to the mitzvah of tefillin is in parashat Bo: “And this shall serve as a sign on your hand and as

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — When the Torah speaks about Moses and Aaron, it sometimes puts Moses first and at other times, Aaron. For example, in Ex. 6:26 Aaron comes first: “It is the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said….” and in the very next verse it is Moses: “….these

By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California —  Religious societies probably grapple with the problem of shame more so than your typical secular community. Rigors of ordinary Orthodox Jewish life are daunting enough. When compared to the members of the Haredi community, Orthodox Jews might just as well consider themselves, “Reform,” or even Unitarian. The

By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO — Reb Yisroel Salanter, founder of what is now the worldwide Mussar Movement, said, “When I was younger I wanted to change the  world. When I realized I couldn’t do that, I decided to change my city. When I realized I couldn’t do that, I decided to change my 

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — In reading a book (“Galileo’s Daughter” by Dava Sobel) about the sixteenth and seventeenth century scientist, astronomer, and philosopher Galileo Galilei, I learned that despite his run-ins with the Catholic Church, Galileo was a deeply religious man. His religious beliefs, however, were out of synch with the orthodoxies