Jewish Holidays

Our frenetic world is beset with difficult and complex issues and one within which all manner of things must (ostensibly) be dealt with immediately, if not sooner.

The mountainsides were festooned with multicolored wild flowers. The Bedouin shepherds led their flocks to graze along the lush valleys.

My rabbi asked, "If Shabbat were a movie, would you stay until the end? Would you walk out in the middle? Would you buy the DVD?" I thought about services and why I try and get there every Friday night.

Last year I did a "Hamantaschen Test Kitchen" with six different varieties:
Cream Cheese Dough
Gingerbread?
Gluten Free Hamantaschen
Chocolate!
Aunt Dora's Recipe
Yeast Dough

This year, I thought I would give some of my favorite tips and tricks for

So, is our struggle against Amalek the eternal war of annihilation between Israel and its physical enemies - is every enemy an heir of Amalek whom we are commanded utterly to destroy - or is our struggle against the Amalek within, against the tendency to forget our own moralscruples when we attain power?

On the Shabbat before Purim, many congregations will read Parshat Zachor (Deuteronomy 25:17 - 20). In the three short verses of this parshah, we are commanded not once but twice to recall a dangerous attack on our people: we are told to remember (Zachor) what the Amalekites did to the Israelites after they left Egypt and not to forget (Lo Tishkach). 

Observations on a winter's day walk in Israel.

Jewish communities around the world marked the "new year for the trees" last week with tree planting ceremonies and seders that celebrate Israel's seven species (wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates if you are keeping track!).

On "Black Friday," I went to the mall, and for the first time since my conversion many years ago, I felt an empty pit in my stomach.

It wasn't the Christmas carols or the lights.