The Jewish Week is expanding their roster of rabbinic commentators and Reb Blog got called up to the plate this week. (thanks Jonathan) Here’s my drash on this week’s Torah portion: Shabbat Shemot Revolution By The Nile: Defiance In The Global ‘Egypt’ Fifteen years ago, I was a passenger on a rusty bus headed out of Egypt. Like many of the young Jewish college kids who had found their way to Cairo on a tourist visa, my weeks in Egypt…
I was up at the Apollo Theater in Harlem last night to pay my respects to the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. While I did not get to view his body – the crowds were seven blocks long and there was a guest list for the viewing during the hours I was there- I did speak with a couple of local women who had spent all day waiting in line and had just come out who were lamenting the fact…
The day was May 20, 1975 – I was finishing my first year of kindergarten with Mrs. Goldberg at the Charlotte Hebrew Academy and my father and I walked from our house down to Freedom Park in Charlotte, North Carolina to hear the President speak. Ford spoke at the bandshell, the same place I’d later hear the local Beatles-act the Spongetones and party with my junior high school friends. Afterwards my father rushed me down the center aisle, past the…
Yes, folks, more than five thousand people have now stopped by and spent a minute or two in the Reb Blog universe. Thanks for visiting! Daniel
Bougies Pour Hanukkah Picture Antiochus the fourthA large and hairy Antiochus the fourthConstipatedIt has been three daysA loser on the Egyptian front A thought bubble risesI’ll go crush JerusalemWin a few style pointsGet a fresh supply of women Has the story been told from the pig’s vantage point?The crate opens:The Temple of the Jews? Yee-haw! I’m free at last! Irony: the pig is the new Isaac. No one can spell Hannukah, but it is easy to explain:We eat this because…
A few years ago, I was fortunate to work closely with a Conservative Rabbi, Benay Lappe, who spent her years at JTS in the closet. I learned about the enormous pain that she went through as she had to hide her identity. She chose JTS beacuse she wanted to learn talmud, to be in an environment that cared about Jewish law, and to be part of a movement that valued tradition. I am sure that there are others like Lappe,…
Heather Grennan Gary, an Indiana based writer has an excellent piece on multifaith education in this month’s In Trust magazine. It gives those outisde of the seminary world a better idea of the work that we do and the impact that it is having beyond New York. From the article: This was particularly impressive for the Church of God group, which included several Latino students. “It was wonderful to have them go to a synagogue for the first time ever…
Shrapnel in the front row During the war between Hezbollah and Israel last summer, I called my cousin who lives in a small suburban town north of Tel Aviv. “It is surreal,” she said. “The children are going back and forth from the bomb shelter to the pool.” Israel’s paradox is well known — on the one hand, it is a war-scarred nation in a region increasingly populated by religious extremists who own explosives. On the other hand, it is…
Last week I had dinner with a man whose son was beheaded by Islamic extremists. Judea Pearl, father of Daniel Pearl, is an Israeli scientist who loves to talk about artificial intelligence and world music but has, because of his son’s brutal murder, found himself abandoning computers to speak to the hearts of people. It has been almost four years, and the mourning process for Judea, for his wife, for his daughter-in-law, has been one in which they have tried…
I spent the last couple of days with Avi and Saleh — had a great time, even took them for falafel at Beyond Pita in Montclair before they flew out of Newark. They were amazing speakers – kudos to Carolyn Slutsky for telling their story. ‘Peace Has To Start Somewhere’ Israeli and Palestinian teens in dialogue program for youth of different faiths hit New York with hopeful message. Carolyn Slutsky – Staff Writer Avi Gordis had never been in a…