The Bat Kol & Needless Risks
The Bat Kol, a heavenly voice that appears in rabbinic literature, serves many purposes. In response to the devastating implosion of OceanGate’s Titan submersible, I take a look at how Jewish...
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Twenty-One Years!
Me, Cheryl, and Abby on the cover of Shalom Today soon after arriving in South Florida 21 years ago, on July 15th, 2002, I began my journey as the Rabbi at Ramat Shalom. Cheryl and I had been married...
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Cities of Refuges
In our Torah portion this morning, specifically in B’Midbar 35, we read how the community must protect an individual who accidentally kills another from what the Torah refers to as a Goel HaDam, a...
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Turn Up Your Spiritual Thermostats!
There was a Torah scholar in the town Medzibuz (presently in the Ukraine) who was not respected by the townspeople. Frustrated by this lack of respect, the scholar asked the great Baal Shem Tov (also...
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Again, Israel Mourns…Israel Rages…
Hanay, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons Tomorrow night, as we mark Tisha B’Av, the day we mourn the destruction of ancient Israel and the exile of our people in both 586BCE and 70CE, we chant from...
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Cheshbon HaNefesh: End of the Year Exam
We have just entered the Jewish month of Elul, the last month of the Jewish year. As we prepare to welcome the new Jewish year 5784, our tradition encourages us to spend this month closely examining...
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My Grandmother’s Shattered Plate
Written 85 years after Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, a series of Nazi-led pogroms against he Jewish community in Germany and incorporated territories. I am shattered.Bits and pieces...
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No Ceasefire! Not Now.
In response to a letter calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas signed by more than 500 employees from synagogues and Jewish groups across the country, close to 700 rabbis, including Rabbi...
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A Letter to the Christian Community Before Christmas
Dear Christian Friends, Judaism reminds us that “a season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven…[including] a time for war and a time for peace (Ecclesiastes 3: 1; 8)....
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Broken and Whole
An engraved illustration image of Moses breaking the two tablets of stone, from a vintage Victorian book dated 1883 that is no longer in copyright Did you know that Moses received the Torah twice? If...
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I Am Angry
I am angry. When Brittney Griner was taken hostage in Russia, the world was focused on liberating her. Our government moved mountains for her. Her plight touched the hearts of Americans. What about...
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