To Our Non-Orthodox Readers
And so it is upon us once again. The end of an old year, the beginning of a new one, and finally the day of Yom Kippur. 365 days of human existence; achievement and failure, effort and waste, happiness and sorrow, life and death. One seventieth of a life gone forever. One seventieth of a […]
And Thou Shalt Love
Yesterday, another Conservative Temple was dedicated.Yesterday, ten more Jews married outside their faith.Yesterday, a hundred thousand Jewish families sat down to enjoy a non-kosher meal. Still yesterday, a million Jews lounged about the house discussing their Saturday auto ride to visit the relatives, while in New York and Cincinnati a score of young men prepared […]
In the Shadow of the Cross
“Pidyon Shvuyim (Redemption of the Captured) takes precedence over the sustenance of the poor and their raiment. There is no greater Mitzvah than that of Pidyon Shvuyim … and he who turns his eye from redeeming him, transgresses the commandments ‘Thou shalt not harden thine heart and shalt not close thy hand … Thou shalt […]
The Bnei Israel
“When is a Jew not a Jew? When he is in Israel, if he belongs to a sect of which the Chief Rabbi disapproves. And being considered a non-Jew in Israel can be awkward, especially if one falls in love.”(Time magazine, July 28, 1961). With this opening paragraph, unfortunately remarkable for its almost totality of […]
The Heavy Mantle
Woe unto the generation whose leader thou art: For you have no knowledge of the suffering of the wise; how they support and feed themselves (Brachos 28a). It is the envy of childhood that, to it, all things seem clear and simple. In the wonderland of the young, there are few complexities and all things […]