Jewish Religion

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — The Torah tells us: “Now Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land. Shechem, son of Hamor, the Hivite, chief of the country, saw her, and took her and lay with her by force.” (Gen. 23:1-2) The story […]

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO –Although Laban promised his daughter, Rachel, to Jacob in marriage, he tricked Jacob into marrying her older sister, Leah, instead. When Jacob complains to Laban about his deceit, Laban replies, “It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the older. Wait until the

By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO — Mort Blumberg* (*name changed) once gave me a call concerning an upcoming heart bypass surgery he was slated to undergo. He asked me what religious things he could do for a successful operation. After ‘prescribing’ him the standard regimen of prayer, recitation of Psalms etc., I told him

By Rabbi Dow Marmur TORONTO, Canada–Women are reviving Judaism. I’ve been part of the Reform Jewish movement since 1957 when I enrolled in a rabbinic college in England. Though in theory Reform Judaism was fully committed to gender equality, there was still little of it in practice other than that, unlike in Orthodox synagogues, women

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO –Last Wednesday was “Stump the Rabbi Day” at our Torah School at Tifereth Israel Synagogue. I meet with most classes once a month and this month, instead of a prepared lesson, I let them ask whatever questions were on their minds. They took the opportunity seriously and asked questions

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO– Some in my congregation may have noticed that I often leave the bima during Shabbat services to greet visitors to our congregation. Although this may appear disruptive, I am following in the footsteps of a most excellent role model: Avraham Avinu, Abraham our Father. Abraham, the first human being

By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO — Hashem revealed to Avraham that He planned to destroy the wicked city of Sodom. Avrahom did not merely take this as intellectual information that was removed from him. Avraham thought about the actual people in the city. As such he pleaded with Hashem that there must surely be

By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO — Avrohom looked at the world and saw the sun, moon, stars and sky. He felt the wind, rain and frost. He saw the forces of nature and cycles of life; the complexities of every creature from the chihuahua to the rhinosaurus. Avrohom reasoned that there had to be

By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — The Coen Brothers made a movie in 2009 called A Serious Man. The film 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