How can we help children cope with natural disasters?
Hearing about and seeing images of people weeping, clutching loved ones in relief or in grief while standing in front of devastated homes and schools evokes painful feelings of sadness, fear and helplessness.
Why Do We Light Two Candles at the Beginning of Shabbat?
The traditional practice is to light two candles on Shabbat.
What does the Jews’ covenant with God mean?
We live our lives as a tapestry of relationships: with parents, siblings, partners and other relatives; with friends, neighbors, and colleagues; with the larger world and the environment; and with God.
Do Reform Jews Believe in the Messiah?
In the Jewish prayer book, the siddur, there are references to an “end of days”: the Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt, the dead who were righteous will be resurrected, and a figure known as the Messiah, or in Hebrew the Moshiach, will restore Israel to new-found glory.
Stories We Tell: The Wooden Sword
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah: K’doshim: Loving Your Neighbor
This week in parashat K'doshim, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, wonders: who is your neighbor? Can you love them even if they are not like you? If—and when—you do, can it change your life and even someone else’s?
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah: Emor: Justice and Balance in Modern Times
This week Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, speaks about parashat Emor and asks: how do you enact justice in modern times to make the world more balanced? And how do you elevate the receiver -- not your own self, the giver?
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah: B'har: Social Justice to the Extreme
This week Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, teaches about parashat B'har and wonders: what would social justice to the extreme look like, and did the Torah know to teach it thousands of years ago?
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah - Shof’tim: Demanding Justice
At the core of being Jewish is a fundamental demand for justice. Demanding justice involves asking others to work toward a more just world, but it also involves asking ourselves to do that work.
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah - Ki Teitzei: The Morality of War
Ki Teitzei translates to “when you go out,” but it doesn’t mean going out to dinner or the movies.