One of the regular visitors to our Shabbat services is a lovely Cambodian woman named Chhomnath Long, whom we know simply as "Chumna."...

Nearly ten weeks have passed since the horrendous events of October 7th.  The war continues in Gaza, as Israel strives to rescue those...

Last year, when I attended the annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international organization of Conservative/Masorti...

As we know, Jewish holidays are either “early” or “late” each year; they never seem to come “on time.” This is due to the Jewish calendar...

Our Jewish tradition prescribes three daily prayer services, shacharit in the morning, minchah in the afternoon, and maariv at night. The...

We have noted in the past that while there are certain prayers regarded by our Sages as obligatory, that passing centuries have added to...

Thoughts on the Akedah (The Binding of Isaac) When we think of the Akedah, the story of the binding and near-sacrifice of our ancestor...

Names are very important in Jewish tradition.  The second book of the Torah, known in English as Exodus, bears the name “Shmot” in Hebrew...

In the wake of the recent unprovoked attack on the State of Israel and its citizens by the terrorist group Hamas, resulting in the murder...

Saturday morning. Shabbat. Shemini Atzeret. Simchat Torah in Israel. Z'man Simchateinu we call it in our liturgy, the season of our joy....

In the Tanach, the Jewish Bible, five small books are grouped together following the larger Books of Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, among the...

Somewhere tucked away, ready to pop out when I least expect it, I have a campaign-style button with a picture of a milkshake on it.  This...

I was in Evanston last week at the “Kosher Jewel” to pick up a couple of items and as I glanced at the packages in the kosher meat...

The word “nusach” which in modern Hebrew means a formula, a version, or a rite, with regard to the prayer service, is used in two...

During the past two weeks we have entered into a period of preparation for the High Holiday season which will soon be upon us.  I wrote a...

This week, we come to the end of the three weeks, beinhametzarim, between the straits, the two fast days, that I wrote about a couple of...

For the past year, I have been serving, in addition to my rabbinic duties at Temple B’nai Israel, as one of the registry chaplains at...

Unless we regularly consult the Jewish calendar, many of us are blissfully unaware of the significance of the period of time that is...

It continues to amaze me as I examine Jewish traditions of prayer, that even after four years of weekly columns, close to 200 essays,...

Several years back, I stumbled upon some interesting volumes published by a young Orthodox rabbi from Great Britain, living in Israel,...