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God blessed them (humans) and god said to them, “Be fertile an increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea the birds of the sky, and all of the living things that creep on earth.” On earth day, I invite us to consider whether “mastery” and “rule” over the…

“The United States is not, and never will be, at war with Islam”. “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation” These recent statements were made by President Obama in front of Muslim audiences. Addressing America’s relationship with the global Muslim community, and the extent to which we are not a “Christian nation”, they are…

In an ironic and bitter coincidence, Hitler’s birthday and the start of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, fall on the same day. Technically they overlap. Hitler’s birthday is April 20 and Yom Hashoah begins tonight, which is the beginning of a new day according to the Jewish tradition in which days run from sundown to…

The Anne Frank Center USA is embarking on a project to plant ten saplings, begun as cuttings from a dying tree in Amsterdam which figures significantly in the famous Diary of a Young Girl. And in doing so, they invite each of us to consider where we find God. Her diary records the following spiritual…

The last day of Passover is one of four occasions in the Jewish liturgical calendar when special memorial prayers are recited in memory of loved ones who have died. Known as Yizkor, from the Hebrew root pertaining to remembering, the prayers themselves are no different from holiday to holiday. So one might reasonably ask, why…

Those with an ax to grind about the Catholic Church, the papacy in general, and Pope Benedict XVI in particular, point to the Pope’s recent apologies about a variety of subjects as evidence of the Church’s failure and the absurdity of the doctrine of papal infallibility. In doing so, they miss a critical lesson about…

Jews from Iran to Israel, from the deserts of Yemen to sandy beach resorts, are all to be found in this collection of pictures depicting Passover celebrations around the world. There are even picures of animals enjoying matzah! Care to guess why? If nothing else, this montage proves, once again, that there are as many…

In responding to an earlier post which shared a Seder ritual designed to help us get out of any tight spot (the literal translation of Mitzrayim, Hebrew name of Egypt) in which we may find ourselves, Zevulun commented: Rabbi, Given that you’re writing about the Exodus, I’m hoping that you can clear something up for…

There may be no food upon which so much ink has been spilled, not to mention blood, as matzah. The blood, to which I refer, is not that of the Blood Libel, the hate-driven lie that Jews, having killed Jesus, remained hungry for Christian blood, which we used to prepare our matzah. I mean the…

No, I don’t mean that we should mock God because it’s a holiday. I mean that at its core, Passover, and the Pesah Seder in particular, invites us all to imitate God as first encountered in the Bible — a bringer of order to a chaotic mess, and a creator of purpose in a purposeless…
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