The chief rabbi of Amsterdam, who was suspended for signing a statement on \”curing\” homosexuality, reportedly has been reinstated and said he was wrong to sign the document using his chief rabbi title.
Parashat Beshallah is a symphony beautifully played, until the orchestra flubs the finale. It is a prima donna nailing the high note of the aria, just to blow out her voice three bars before the close.
Reading Jonah Lowenfeld’s “Can We Afford Kosher Lettuce?” (Jan. 27) was a déjà vu moment for my wife and me. We, too, bought the special worry-free, super-kosher romaine lettuce with the rabbinical seal of approval for our Pesach seder — and immediately came face to face with an enormous slug.
Much has already been written about the horrifying scenes of violence, extremism and chilul Hashem (desecration of God’s name) taking place in Israel these past weeks — indeed these past years; but something more needs to be said.
We read two puzzling statements as God prepares to exact the plagues in this week’s parasha. “And I will pass through Egypt … and I will smite every first-born … and I will exact judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am God” (Exodus 12:12). Moreover, on that night, “[T]here will be a great cry throughout all Egypt, the like of which never before has been and never again will be. [But] against the Children of Israel no dog shall sharpen its tongue, [not at] a man and [not at] an animal” (Exodus 11:6-7).
In this week’s Torah portion, we meet a frustrated and dejected Moses. God’s reluctant leader of the Jewish people cannot convince Pharaoh to free the Israelites from bondage, no matter how emphatically he proclaims, “Let my people go.” Pharaoh doesn’t budge; in fact, things get worse for the people each time Moses asks. The Jewish people seem paralyzed by fear and depression, further frustrating Moses.
A Winnipeg synagogue is about to become the first Conservative shul in Canada to host a same-sex wedding ceremony. Shaarey Zedek Synagogue will be the scene on Jan. 21 for the \”renewal\” of marriage vows between two men wedded in a civil service in Vancouver in 2004, the Winnipeg Jewis Post and News reported.
Women may deliver eulogies at funerals, the Religious Services Ministry told Israeli burial societies.
Israeli society could be torn apart if disputes between ultra-Orthodox and less observant Jews continue to heat up, Israel\’s religious affairs minister said on Wednesday.
Jerzy Kluger, the Polish Jewish boyhood friend of the late Pope John Paul who had a major influence on the pontiff\’s revolutionary relations with Jews, has died, friends said on Monday.
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