From my own experience and from the reports in The Jewish Journal, it is evident that it has become more and more difficult to plan for a dialogue between fellow Jews on the subject of Israel — much easier to organize a discussion between Christian and Jewish leadership or even between Islamic and Jewish representatives.
It was unseasonably cold on the eve of the New Year. The lakes were frozen; the sun retreated from the heavens on erev Rosh Hashanah. A group of porcupines noted for their rugged individualism were caught shivering in wintry storms. They decided to huddle together and thereby find warmth in each other. But as they drew closer, their sharp, stiff quills tore into their flesh and caused them considerable pain. They then separated but were again punished by the icy winds. Such is the dilemma of porcupines: isolated they freeze, united they suffer.
Colleagues in faith, we must act together now. We owe it to our respective faiths and our common calling.
The conscience of the Jewish state has spoken through the recent landmark ruling of Israel\’s Supreme Court. It has taken an important step toward removing the pariah stigma from tens of thousands of Jews who converted to Judaism by the rabbinic authority of non-Orthodox rabbis, but ignored by the Jewish state.
Religion is multifaceted. The task of every responsible religious observer is to sort out the healthy from the unhealthy elements within faith, to distinguish the moral from the immoral aspects of belief.
We have a tendency to either divinize or demonize our heroes. Either extreme is dangerously misleading.
Pity the children. Rabbi Simeon Bar Yochai declared \”Throw yourself into a blazing furnace rather than shame a neighbor in public.\”
Once again, the anniversary of the Holocaust is upon us (April 13), and, once again, the commemoration taunts me. \”Go preach the goodness of God.\” \”Go praise the crown of God\’s creation made but little lower than the angels.\” \”Speak to the world of faith and hope in the wake of the terrifying knowledge: 1.5 million children murdered because of their Jewishness, nine out of every 10 European rabbis slaughtered, one third of a people decimated.\”
have learned from the Clinton affair how unprepared our technologically sophisticated society is to deal with moral issues, and specifically how to transmit moral wisdom to our children.
Abraham Joshua Heschel said that he prayed for one thing: the gift of wonder. He prayed for astonishment, for the capacity to be surprised. As he wrote, \”I try not to be stale. I try to remain young. I have one talent, and that is the capacity to be tremendously surprised at life and at ideas. This is to me the supreme Chassidic imperative.\”
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