In the wake of his passing on August 7, 2020, I remember Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in conversation, as the ever youthful rebel, questioning the whole universe, with a biting sense of humour. In the Orthodox world, where clothing defines the person, he made sure to stand out as a unique creature, combining worn jeans with…
I didn’t talk to my roommate for an entire year. I was in 11th grade, at a Yeshiva where the students lived in dormitories on campus. Early in the school year, Sruli and I got into a fight. We were taking turns on a handheld electronic football game we had borrowed from a friend and,…
This weekend, we celebrate July 4, on which the founders signed The Declaration of Independence and proclaimed as self-evident “that all men are created equal,” despite the fact that they themselves were slaveholders. As protests underscore the cognitive dissonance between this country’s enlightened founding principles and the fact that “Black Lives Matter” is still a…
There’s something simultaneously ironic, funny, sad and fascinating when a student messages me asking if they are white. Now this isn’t, of course, a question about physical colors, in which I’m no expert; any of my peers will attest to the fact that I wasn’t blessed with an eye for color schemes. Rather, they are…
Human life is so sacred that Jewish tradition is famously reticent about criminal punishment in general and capital punishment in particular. Thus, Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva said, “If we would have been on the Sanhedrin, no one would ever have been executed” (Mishnah Makkot 1:17). To be tried criminally, Jewish law requires that a…
Welcome to the first of what we hope will be a recurring feature in which we explore a passage from the Talmud that resonates with current events. The goal is not to determine “the Jewish view” but to prompt thought and discussion. You can find more about this passage — Sanhedrin 74a-b — at the…
Yesterday I was invited to a webinar called “How to make sure you are not raising the next Amy Cooper.” It is one of countless calls in the past few days about how to not be or not raise a racist. These lessons are essential. White America is just now beginning to learn how to…
Like it or not — and who among us actually likes it — come April 15, you will need to have filed your income tax return with the Internal Revenue Service. Perhaps one way to feel better about the painful and often inconvenient process is to recognize that it has roots in the biblical concept…
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