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Virtual Talmud

Rabbi Waxman makes my point: those who get stuck on an “all or nothing approach” (i.e. proving or disproving the historicity of the Exodus) miss the point of the eternal values the story contains. However, that rule goes for both sides of the argument, not only those who cling to proving how anachronisms could be…

I find it interesting that Rabbi Grossman wants to argue that the Exodus account may contain more historical truth than I give it credit for. Maybe, maybe not–I’m not sure it terribly matters either way. Clinging to the “kernels of truth” argument–sometimes posed as “something happened at the Red Sea, we’re just not sure what”…

The question of the historical authenticity of the Exodus story gets into far larger questions, namely, does history matter and if so what are the claims it can make on us? Personally I have gone back and forth on the issue. People care about historical records and for good reason. They want to know if…

I agree with Rabbi Waxman that the power and relevance of the Exodus lies not in whether we can historically verify the details of its story but in the truths it contains. The most obvious are the nature of the experience of oppression and the power of hope in the face of it. These truths…

Several years ago, before I had even enrolled in rabbinical school, I was sitting at my parents’ table for seder when my uncle looked at me pointedly and said: “You’re the religious one. Tell me, did the Exodus really happen?” Suddenly, it got very quiet around the seder table. The Exodus from Egypt – the…

Rabbi Stern writes that in America anti-Semitism is as dead as a door nail. I wish it were true. While the Anti-Defamation League recently reported that the number of anti-Semitic incidents were down by 12 percent from 2005, the Klu Klux Klan is experiencing a resurgence. Additionally, there were still 1,554 reported violent incidents in…

As someone who is often still lost in the alphabet soup of Jewish organizations – UJC, WZO, AJC, JCRC, WJC, LOL – I share the frustration of those who find the organizations of Jewish communal life difficult to navigate, perhaps even outmoded. These organizations are large enough that they have to engage in huge fundraising…

In wake of the recent shakeup in leadership at the World Jewish Congress, bloggers, pundits, and Jews around the country have been calling into question the role and import of national and international Jewish organizations such as WJC, United Jewish Communities American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress and the Anti-Defamation League. Or as my friends…

I think Rabbi Grossman sells the power of Jewish food short. True, there is much, much more to our tradition than our food, but food is an important aspect of Jewish civilization. It demonstrates how Judaism is more than just a religion: it comprises all aspects of every day life (feel free to correct me…

What is it about Jews and food? It’s more than our obsession with finding a good bagel. It’s our almost pathological need for conspicuous consumption. We always have to have more than enough. Perhaps it is the collective unconscious of generations of Jewish mothers who had to witness their children going to bed hungry every…
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