RJ Blog

For a long time the common refrain has been that “religious values” meant “conservative or traditional.” With the decline of the so-called Religious Right the monopoly on terms like “Values Voters” or descriptions that equate religion with only one set of beliefs and values about some contentious issues in civil society. So, when I saw this video from the Center for American Progress, I wondered if there’s a rising set of religious leaders who are asserting their values in the public sphere. Take a look after the jump.

I do not know of any colleague who has not, at one time or another, sat with a family as a loved one neared the end of life. It can be a heart-wrenching, spiritual, troublesome, anxious and fulfilling encounter — all at the same time. Sadly, too many families find themselves alone and adrift in a sea of medical terminology and health care controls. The physician, having tried “the arsenal of medical technology,” may ask what the family wishes to do next. This month’s edition of Atlantic Monthly includes a thought-provoking piece on the need for “The Conversation.” Author Jonathan [...]

By Rabbi Lynne Landsberg In Berachot (34b), the Talmud teaches that a synagogue must be built with windows in the sanctuary. I believe this is so we can see who is outside and unable to join us. As Jews, we have to maintain “mental windows” everywhere so that we understand that those whom we refer to as “shut-ins” are not shut-in. They are cruelly shut out of the life many of us take for granted. We have to begin by helping our larger communities understand that we Jews have to change our attitudes. There is a saying in the disability community that [...]

by Rabbi Ron Symons There are certain verses that were placed as foundation stones of the Jew I aspire to be.  Growing up in Temple Emanu-el of Lynbrook, NY, under the leadership of Rabbi Harold Saperstein z’l, I learned that “You (plural) shall be holy, for I, Adonai your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19) serves as the foundation for the sacred community in which I grew up and towards which I lovingly labor to build on a daily basis with hundreds of members of our community. My professors at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem and New York taught me that [...]

The barista at my local coffee shop hands me an extra dollar and I immediately hand it back. I see someone struggling with a baby carriage trying to open a door and I rush to help. I make room for a car to enter my lane of traffic. I clean out my pantry and donate a few cans of food to the local food bank. These sound so mundane; behaviors that every “good citizen” should do. They’re also behaviors that I would label mitzvot.Would you? Perhaps we’ll up the ante… Last year I had cancer. People brought me dark chocolate [...]

When the founders of modern Zionism hoped that having a country of their own would make Jews like all other nations, they didn’t think that the Jews would adopt any of the despicable traits of the anti-Semites among whom they lived in dispersion. The aim of Zionism was not only to liberate the Jews from their perilous existence as pariahs but also to enable them to live by the highest ideals of their tradition. Yet more than six decades after the establishment of the State of Israel that has indeed afforded Jews who settled here freedom from persecution  – and [...]

by Rabbi Alan CookAssociate Rabbi, Temple De Hirsch Sinai, Seattle, WA The gut reaction of many to the acquittal verdict in the Casey Anthony trial is understandable. We weep for the unrealized promise represented by Caylee Anthony and long for a sense of vengeance, or at least some degree of closure that will enable us to derive some sort of sense from what is an unfathomably horrible crime. A 2-year-old child is dead. As a parent myself, I cannot imagine any parent reacting so cavalierly to the knowledge that grievous harm has come to their child. Do I think that [...]

by Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz(Originally Posted on Sh’ma Koleinu – Hear Our Voices) Those who have read this blog before know that its not my usual mode to add my commentary to the wonderful world of political punditry. While my congregants can probably guess what TV channels I mostly tune in to for my daily dose of news (ok, I’ll confess – its usually BBC World because how else am I going to get a daily dose to try and preserve my ever-diminishing British accent!), I don’t use (or rather, abuse) my pulpit in ways that make it a soapbox for my [...]

by Austin Zoot I am an avid reader. I love to read anything from novels to nonfiction and everything in between. At my local Borders, a few months ago, I was browsing the sale shelves, looking for something cheap and interesting. What I found was a book titled The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. I decided to purchase it and read it, because I was fascinated by the idea behind the book. In the book, Jacobs sets out to spend one calendar year following biblical law as literally as possible. As a secularized Jew, the author focuses mostly [...]

by JanetheWriterOriginally posted on JanetheWriter Writes… As I continue to walk the mourner’s path, I am comforted by many things: the extraordinary outpouring of affection and care from family and friends, the sage rituals and rhythms of Jewish tradition, and, indeed, by my mother’s own words and wishes. Earlier today, I went in search of her ethical will to my sister and me, which, as anticipated, I found safely tucked away in a box of keepsakes in my hall closet. Although it includes no date, I would guess, based on context, my mother wrote it sometime in late 1995 or [...]

by Barbara Lerman-Golomb I nearly lost a friendship over the recipe for my Nana’s kugel–the sweet noodle pudding that can be served on its own or taken up a notch if served with a dollop of sour cream. My friend and I got into an argument about sharing the recipe. She insisted that my grandmother would want the world to know how to make her kugel. In other words, spread the wealth. My thinking was (and I might add, still is), that private ownership of Nana’s recipe is like a shared secret between us and it’s not bad for my [...]

by Rachel CohenLegislative Assistant, RAC(Originally published on The Jew and the Carrot) As Jews, we have always cared about the food that we eat. Some of us choose to embrace traditional notions of kashrut – and many of us do not – but we can all agree that our food, and how we get it, plays an important part in our lives. That’s why Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, opened one section of his 2009 Biennial Shabbat sermon with these words: “Jewish history begins with a Jew – a new Jew, the first Jew – [...]

by Deborah Niederman, R.J.E.(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah) Rabbi Moffic suggests that our human actions, as exemplified by Abraham and Sarah’s modeling of “welcoming guests,” hachnasat orchim, can “bring heaven down to earth.” He suggests that the ethical way Abraham and Sarah approach this mitzvah imbues it with special meaning, and quoting Rabbi Soloveitchik, reminds us that God does not have separate standards for our ritual and ethical acts.   Many of the rich stories that follow in this very same parashah challenge the ethical nature of humanity and God’s hopes for God’s Chosen [...]

by Evan Moffic(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah) One of the great modern teachers of Judaism, Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, zichrono livrachah, urged Reform Jews to ritualize the ethical and ethicize the ritual. Rabbi Wolf’s point was that Jewish tradition does not differentiate between ethical and ritual law. (See essay “Back to the Future: On Rediscovering the Commandments,” in Duties of the Soul, eds. Knobel and Goldstein [New York: UAHC Press], 1999, p. 20). They are deeply intertwined and mutually reinforcing. This argument has its detractors, and it surely does not characterize the views [...]