After One-Hundred-and-Twenty: Reflecting on Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in the Jewish Tradition
I know I’m not alone in wrestling with my own mortality. I was asked these questions many times during my rabbinic career as people aged and as loved ones died – but never did I think they related to me personally. Now I find myself looking for answers to these questions, and I’ve found answers in Hillel Halkin’s After One-Hundred-and-Twenty: Reflecting on Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in the Jewish Tradition.
The Fragile Dialogue: New Voices of Liberal Zionism
Last month, Jews around the world woke up to the news that a group of Reform Jewish leaders in Jerusalem for the ordination of the 100th Israeli Reform rabbi was treated harshly by security guards as they carried Torah scrolls onto the plaza in front of the Kotel, the Western Wall of the Temple Mount.
Eternal Life
It’s hard to think of an author who more skillfully blends secular and religious themes than Dara Horn. Since the 2002 publication of her first novel, In the Image, she has emerged as one of the most important Jewish literary voices of the 21st century. Her stories often intertwine narratives from multiple time periods and involve historical figures and notable events. Her first novel since 2013, Eternal Life, takes its? time jumping into the realm of immortality novels.
The Parting Gift
I am approaching my fiftieth wedding anniversary, but I have vague memories from my long-ago youth of what it’s like to fall in love at first sight. Such experiences did not end well for me; neither does the affair portrayed in the story The Parting Gift (Other Press), written by Evan Fallenberg, an Ohio-born writer who now lives in Israel.
Annelies: A Novel
David R. Gillham’s Annelies: A Novel (Viking and Penguin Books) is a fictionalized portrayal of Anne Frank based on the premise that she recovers from her illness in Bergen-Belsen, returns to post-war Amsterdam, and is reunited with her father, Otto, whom she calls Pim.
Houdini: The Elusive American
In Houdini: The Elusive American, Adam Begley, tells the remarkable story of how a Hungarian-born rabbi’s son achieved global fame as the world’s greatest magician and the master of “self-liberation.”
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah - Mishpatim: Mindfulness, Being Present and Having Heart
What does it mean to be "mindful," to truly slow down and pay attention to what's happening in our daily lives? This week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs explores this question through Parashat Misphatim when God beckons Moses to not only come up to a mountain, but to also "be" there.
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah: Building Our Own Tabernacle Together - Parashah Trumah
In this week’s Parashah, the Israelites contribute whatever they can to Moses in order to help build the Mishkan (Tabernacle).
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah: Let Your Eternal Light Shine - Parashat T'tzaveh
This week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs takes a look at parashat T’tzaveh, in which the Israelites are commanded to create the ner tamid (eternal light) in the Tabernacle.