I hope you all had an enjoyable Fourth of July holiday.  This is one festival on the American calendar which truly provides an...

Thoughts on the “Lord’s Prayer” and Jewish Liturgy Most of us who went to public school prior to the decision of the Supreme Court in...

Six years ago, at the urging of our then Membership and Publicity Chair, I was asked to write a weekly piece for our Facebook page and...

After the Flood in Noah’s day, a great rainbow appeared in the sky.  We read in Genesis that God told Noah, “I have set my bow in the...

I was very pleased to see on Wednesday that the Chicago Board of Rabbis presented its annual Rabbi Mordecai Simon Award to Rabbi Anna...

It seems that this is the season for remembrance, a time to recall those who have fallen in battle as well as those whose lives ended...

Earlier this week, on Tuesday, we observed Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day.  As always, it was preceded, on Monday, with...

How can one best memorialize those who died during the Shoah during the Second World War?  As in most areas of Jewish life, so too here...

Moadim l’simcha!  I wish you the joy of this holiday season. This week, as you know, we are celebrating the festival of Pesach, of...

Certainly, one of the most popular and frequently published works in Jewish tradition is the Passover Haggadah, the booklet we use for...

Thoughts on a Recurring Divine Attribute I wrote last week about one of the traditional Passover songs that appears at the end of the...

As Passover approaches in the next couple of weeks, I wanted to take another look at the Haggadah and some of the songs and prayers I...

Thoughts on Easter and Passover This Sunday, many Christians will be celebrating Easter, though the Orthodox Church will not do so until...

Thoughts on Purim after October 7th Purim begins this Saturday evening, March 23, with a service at 8:00pm, during which we will read the...

For more than a month now we have focused in our weekly Torah readings on the creation of a central shrine in the midst of the ancient...

Every year around this time, as we approach the new month of Adar (this year the second Adar), I begin preparing for a Siyyum for the eve...

I was at a meeting the other day where someone raised a question about an area of concern in town that the City Council should address. ...

This Shabbat we will be celebrating a very special birthday of one of our members who has attained the age of 90 this week.  We are...

This week, on our secular calendar, we marked St. Valentine’s Day.  While Valentine was apparently a priest or bishop who defended...