(print version) To Pray the Jewish Way At first glance prayer seems to be about whining and begging G-d, "Please heal this person ... please bring me my soul-mate ... please help my business, etc." One could mistakenly think that G-d is holding out on us and gets pleasure watching us grovel. When we are faced with some very serious … [Read more...]

(print version) Of all the unexpected visitors I have ever received, none even come close to the surprise I got in the summer of 94'. I was teaching a course on Jewish values deep in the mountains of Pennsylvania, at a camp called Moshava, near Indian Orchard. We were in the middle of an intense discussion on Jewish ethics, when I noticed … [Read more...]

(print version) What You See Is What You Get "Daddy, where is G-d?" "Son, wherever you let Him in." — Attributed to Rebbe Pinchas of Koretz How do we open our souls' eyes to let G-d in? The Kabbalah says, "There is no king without a nation." This point requires deep exploration. It may make sense that, in the human world, a king is … [Read more...]

(print version) It seems like yesterday; so poignant and sharp is the memory of that day. I can still see all the guys, in their dress uniforms, preparing for the final ceremony. It should have been one of the most powerful and exciting days of my life; instead, it was one of the most depressing. After eight of the longest, most grueling … [Read more...]

(print version) The Miracle and Mystery of Jewish History Celebrating the Soul-Meaning of Chanukah Albert Einstein once said: “There are two ways of looking at the world: either you see nothing as a miracle or you see everything as a miracle.” Chanukah reminds us that Judaism sees everything as a miracle. But Hellenism saw nothing as … [Read more...]

(print version) One of the fascinating postscripts to the tragedy of the Holocaust was the saga of the many Jewish children who were hidden during the war, especially in churches and monasteries across Europe, but whose parents did not survive to find them when the war was over. Some of these children were six or seven years old, and though … [Read more...]

(print version) Real Love Means Embracing Conflict The Secret of Jacob The Torah (Bible) teaches us that Jacob went to the house Laban, his uncle, and dwelt there for many years. He married Rachel and Leah, Laban's daughters, and had eleven sons there. After years of struggling with Laban constantly deceiving him he finally left to return … [Read more...]

(print version) Jebalya; anyone who has been there has no desire to go back. A nasty piece of real estate in the Gaza strip, Je’balya is a densely overpopulated refugee camp that is always waiting to explode. Which is exactly what happened back in 1987, when an Israeli truck driver ploughed into a crowd of Arabs, killing three and wounding … [Read more...]