http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php en nrubin@jewishtimes.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-10T19:04:19+00:00 http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/gods_relevance/ http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/gods_relevance/#When:19:00:29Z It’s an old pastime at Beth Am to debate the merits of belief in a “personal God.” Perhaps it’s because we have a number of academics who enjoy theological quandaries, or perhaps because Dr. Louis Kaplan, Beth Am’s founding rebbe, famously questioned the existence of a personal God. I wonder, though, if there is another way to frame… Torah 2012-02-09T19:00:29+00:00 http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/chutzpah_faith/ http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/chutzpah_faith/#When:19:00:19Z I teach a class for expectant parents called “Hava NaBaby.”  Working with a childbirth educator, we empower our students with practical and spiritual tools to help them through this exciting time in their lives.  One of my favorite sessions is the one on comfort measures for labor and delivery.  My co-teacher helps them learn about massage, aromatherapy, positioning,… Torah 2012-02-02T19:00:19+00:00 http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/the_plague_of_ignorance/ http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/the_plague_of_ignorance/#When:19:00:00Z Seven down, three to go — Pharaoh and his advisors have had enough. After enduring blood, frogs, lice, wild beasts, cattle disease, boils and hail, the courtiers come before the king and protest, “Let the men go to worship the Lord their God!” (Ex. 10:7).  Two problems: First, the leadership of Egypt seems to be under the… Torah 2012-01-26T19:00:00+00:00 http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/tolerating_the_intolerable/ http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/tolerating_the_intolerable/#When:03:00:27Z We are old-fashioned in some ways. We still get the newspaper — two, as a matter of fact — delivered to our house every morning. There is something about reading a newspaper on newsprint that gives it a different feel than reading it on the computer. Several months ago, when our daughter began reading in earnest, we realized… Torah 2012-01-20T03:00:27+00:00 http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/micky_mouse_judaism/ http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/micky_mouse_judaism/#When:19:00:22Z My son talks to the television. It’s hardly his fault; the TV keeps talking to him! At some point, someone figured out that, pedagogically speaking, children of a certain age don’t differentiate so well between fantasy and reality. So Shamir does not find it strange when Mickey Mouse asks if he’d like to come inside his clubhouse; he… Torah 2012-01-12T19:00:22+00:00 http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/three_wishes/ http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/three_wishes/#When:19:00:25Z It was Friday night. We were gathered around the Shabbat table. The moment came to bless our children. We brought them close to us, put our hands on their heads, offered them the sacred words of our tradition, and gave them kisses. Our daughter, then maybe 2 or 3 years old, said she wanted to bless us.  … Torah 2012-01-05T19:00:25+00:00 http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/empathys_value/ http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/empathys_value/#When:19:00:06Z A threesome of golfers is waiting for an exceedingly slow group ahead. Feeling impatient, they spot the greens-keeper and ask what’s going on. He replies, “There’s a group of blind firefighters ahead of you. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we let them play for free anytime.” After a moment,… Torah 2011-12-29T19:00:06+00:00 http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/capturing_moments/ http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/capturing_moments/#When:19:00:02Z Last spring, my husband and I went to New York City for a couple of days. We spent one afternoon wandering through galleries in Chelsea admiring the insight and creativity of some very talented artists. One particular exhibit has stayed with me, though the name of the artist has, sadly, escaped me. In each of… Torah 2011-12-22T19:00:02+00:00 http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/deciphering_messages/ http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/deciphering_messages/#When:19:00:04Z Soren Kierkegaard wrote that though “life must be understood backward … it must be lived forward.” Try this: Think of a completely triumphant moment in your life, a moment about which you are deeply proud and rightly so. Now think of a difficult experience that preceded it.  Chances are there was one (if not many). The greater… Torah 2011-12-15T19:00:04+00:00 http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/timeless_lessons_from_noahs_time/ http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/timeless_lessons_from_noahs_time/#When:19:58:06Z Following the Great Flood in Noah’s time, which we read about this Shabbat, all the people of the earth spoke one language, and had a common belief and purpose, as we see in Genesis, chapter 11. Their unity, however, was not the positive quality in the way that we think of unity today, when we strive so… Torah 2011-10-27T19:58:06+00:00 http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/be_thorough/ http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/be_thorough/#When:19:00:18Z William Butler Yeats wrote, “Bald heads forgetful of their sins/Old, learned, respectable bald heads …”  These two lines from his 1917 poem “The Scholars” proceed in uncomplimentary tone towards the elderly, especially older scholars. Despite being almost 50 years old at that point, a youthful hubris is projected by Yeats’ word choice. Strong language is common in Yeats’… Torah 2010-03-18T19:00:18+00:00 http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/shadowy_memories/ http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/shadowy_memories/#When:04:00:34Z
]]>The children of Holocaust survivors often describe the experience of having grown up in a home of shadowy memories. The single defining event of their parents’ lives — the Shoah — hung as a specter over their family because it was never explicitly talked about, or sometimes even referred to. Yet it was there — it haunted every… Torah 2008-12-05T04:00:34+00:00 http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/good_government/ http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/torah/jt/torah/good_government/#When:03:00:52Z
]]>“Hevei mitpallel bishlomah shel malkhut; Pray for the well-being of the administration” (Mishnah Avot 3:2). This simple aphorism by Rabbi Chanania, a priestly official at the Temple in the middle of the first century C.E., became the source of a long-standing custom to pray for the welfare of the government after returning the Torah on Shabbat morning.… Torah 2008-11-14T03:00:52+00:00