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Virtual Talmud

From the Iron Chef to Alice Waters, there is nothing more universal than food. Everyone eats. Everyone needs nourishment. If there is one thing that brings us all together it is the most basic instinct of all, hunger. Hey, what’s more beautiful than imagining everyone breaking bread together? And yet, Judaism says No, stop right…

South Beach. Atkins. Low Carb. Each diet has its proscriptions and restrictions. Each has its high-cost items that begin to add up when you eat them every day, whether snack bars or supplements. Though I doubt a study was done, my guess is that Jews are no different than the rest of the population in…

At various points in history, the legitimacy of the Book of Esther has been challenged as part of the Biblical canon. Although the Council of Yavneh in 90 C.E. confirmed that the book was, in fact, part of the Hebrew Bible, it is clear that this was by no means a unanimous opinion. And as…

Fear Factor Judaism dominates American Jewish life. Here is just a spattering of typical Fear Factor Jewish discourse: “You better support the cause against anti-Semitism–otherwise our survival may be in jeopardy.” “You better go to synagogue on Yom Kippur or your sins will not be forgiven.” “You better send you children to a Hebrew school–otherwise…

Purim is visceral. We yell, stamp our feet and wave noisemakers like crazy to drown out the name of the villain, Haman, who sought to kill every Jewish man, woman and child. If only it were that easy to make the real bad guys, the Osama bin Laden’s of the world, disappear. There is something…

As you might expect, contrary to “new-found scientific research,” Jewish ritual circumcison–brit milah–is not and will not be going by the wayside anytime soon. The truth of the matter is that Jews have been circumcising their children long before science ever said it was negative or positive. By the way, just to give some context,…

Why is it that when we might die if caught observing our traditions we hold them precious, but when we can freely observe them we all too easily abandon them? Take brit milah, ritual circumcision, and the debate over whether Jews should continue circumcising their sons. The question isn’t whether we, as parents, are willing…

I remember very well standing over my beautiful, perfect, eight-day-old son with a knife in my hand. It was his brit milah, the day of his induction into the covenant between the Jewish people and God through the rite of circumcision. Typically, this procedure is performed by a trained mohel (ritual circumciser). In the traditional…

The Reconstructionist movement was never supposed to be one. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionism in the 1920’s, actually considered himself a Conservative Jew and taught at that movement’s seminary for more than fifty years. (He was also a co-founder of the Modern Orthodox Young Israel movement and the inspiration for the secular JCC…

Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, sees the collapse of social groupings, from fraternal organizations to bowling leagues, as symptomatic of the modern desire to relate on one’s own terms and schedule with like-minded and demographically similar people. What is true for communal organizations is true for religious congregations and even national denominations. Among my…
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