Rabbi Salkin is a contributing editor to Religion News Service; the co-founder and co-director of Wisdom Without Walls: an online salon for Jewish ideas, and the author of, most recently, Tikkun Ha’Am/Repairing Our People: Israel and the Crisis of Liberal Judaism.
An anthology, called 'Shiva,' feels like an extension of the biblical scroll Lamentations
In a famous Hasidic story, a rabbi asks his disciple: “Do you love me?” To which the disciple replies: “Of course I love you!” The rabbi continues. “Do you know what causes me pain?” he asks. “Rabbi, how can I know what causes you pain?” To which the rabbi responds: “If you do not know…
By all accounts, the transition from in-person to virtual High Holiday services because of the COVID-19 pandemic was a huge success. Record numbers of people viewed Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, albeit online. Synagogues worked tirelessly to make liturgy and music appealing and catchy in what was for many a new medium. While donations…
If you attended religious school, you’ve probably heard this story: It was the first century of the Common Era. The Romans had destroyed Jerusalem, and with it, Judean independence. In utter despair, the Jews smuggled their leader, Yochanan ben Zakkai, out of Jerusalem in a coffin. He leaped out of the coffin, and hailed the…
This article was originally published on September 2, 2009. It was re-published for the 70th anniversary of the Peekskill Riots on August 26, 2019, and lightly edited to reflect the new anniversary of the event. Peekskill, New York, on the bank of the Hudson River, was home to L. Frank Baum, the author of “The…
It was like entering my own personal Holy of Holies. That was how I felt this past weekend, as I visited the URJ Camp Eisner in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The occasion: the wedding of the son of beloved friends, who themselves have become like family. But, on a deeper level, it was an act of…
A different version of this essay appeared in the blog Martini Judaism: for those who want to be shaken and stirred, published Religion News Service. What is the sound of America cringing? Larry David now knows. And, it’s not pretty. This last Saturday night, comedian Larry David was the guest host on NBC’s “Saturday Night…
The matzah crumbs are still on the tablecloth on the dining room table. The leftover charoset still sits in the refrigerator. The haggadot from the seder still sit in a corner of the kitchen counter. The text from the haggadah cries out to us: “In every generation, a person must see himself or herself as…
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