By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO–During Pesach Jews are obsessed with ridding their homes of chametz. (fermented wheat, rye, barley, oats, and spelt.) They remove bread, cookies, and beer (sigh), clean and scrub their counters and sinks, vacuum their carpets, and blowtorch their ovens (or use the self clean mode!). The process of getting rid […]
The symbolism of ridding our homes of chametz Read More »
Jewish Religion
By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel — There’s some controversy about President Barack Obama’s Passover message. The key passage is this: “The story of Passover…instructs each generation to remember its past, while appreciating the beauty of freedom and the responsibility it entails. This year that ancient instruction is reflected in the daily headlines as we see
President Obama’s Passover problem Read More »
Jewish Religion, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–French Hill is a largely secular Jewish neighborhood, with families who are religious and ultra-Orthodox, as well as a few Arab families and Arab plus East Asian singles and young couples who are students at the nearby university. The neighborhood synagogues are one Ashkenazi, one Sephardi, one mixed Ashkenazi-Sephardi, one Conservative, and
Passover, French-Hill style Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Jewish Religion
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — In the last couple of weeks there has hardly been a lamp post or a bus shelter in Jerusalem – and probably elsewhere in Israel – that hasn’t been covered with offers of pre-Pesach home cleaning. Even yeshiva students, normally not associated with physical (or perhaps any other) work,
As Pesach approaches, Israel has Obsessive Cleaning Disorder Read More »
Jewish Religion
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — Passover is the best gift we ever gave to the world; nobody who was ever a human being could turn down its message of freedom, its transformation of the taste of tears into the wine of hope, its view of the leaves of parsley as the springtime of
An ode to Passover Read More »
Jewish ReligionBy Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO–Toward the beginning of the Passover Seder we hold up our plate of matzah and recite: “This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat!” On Tuesday students from our Community Jewish High were blessed with
Teens help feed the hungry through Hand Up organization Read More »
Jewish Religion
By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO–Hashem orchestrates the world and takes care of us in amazing unexpected ways. He showers us with blessings. We need to be able to accept those brachos (blessings), as the following story illustrates: (continued from last week) Mendel excused himself and asked his wife to join him in the next
Yossi and Sheindel — how it all turned out Read More »
Jewish Religion
By Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM–Citizens of southern Israel face the prospect of yet another Passover under fire. The barrage of missiles and rockets on our southern cities and surrounding western Negev kibbutzim is almost taken for granted by the international community as they prefer to focus on whether a few hundred more apartments are being
18 Ways To Know Passover is Coming in Israel Read More »
Jewish Religion, Travel and FoodBy Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO, April 7 – Fueled by kosher pizza, members and guests of the Tifereth Israel Men’s Club participated Thursday night in a ceremony that was both solemn and light-hearted: the packing of yellow candles for congregants to light at their homes the evening of April 30, Erev Yom Hashoah – the evening
Somber yet light-hearted workers pack candles for Shoah rite Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish ReligionBy Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO — The Torah portions of Tazria and Metzora describe in detail, the procedure followed by a Kohain when he examines a person for tzaraas, a leprosy-like disease. One of the guidelines a Kohain utilizes while checking out a person’s skin, is the fact that every hair on the human
Yossi and Sheindel—a match, or not? Read More »
Jewish ReligionBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Current events invite consideration of a prayer said by religious Jews three times each day. The subject of Richard Goldstone came up in a conversation with a religious friend, and he responded with the opening of the 12th chapter of the Amidah. וְלַמַּלְשִׁינִים אַל תְּהִי תִקְוָה The first word (malshinim) may be
How Judaism views Jewish slanderers Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Jewish ReligionBy Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO –On Wednesday evening I returned from attending this year’s Rabbinical Assembly International Convention. For the first time, this annual gathering of Conservative-Masorti rabbis took place in Las Vegas, Nevada. Although the convention was held in the suburb of Summerlin in a quiet hotel far from the famed Las Vegas
Rabbinic impressions of Las Vegas Read More »
Jewish Religion
Beginnings: The First Love, the First Hate, the First Dream… Reflections on the Bible’s Intriguing Firsts by Meir Shalev, Translated from the Hebrew by Stuart Schoffman, Harmony Books, New York; ISBN 978-0-037-71718-4 ©2011, $25.00, 295 pages By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California– Americans relish someone accomplishing something first! Do you remember who flew the first airplane? How
Witty book examines ‘firsts’ in the Bible Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion