Your Source for High Quality, Diverse On-Line Jewish Content
Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Mordechai Silverstein looks at Masechet Megilah Daf 2. What does the first Mishnah of Megillah tell us about the Mishnah, authority and the justification of the law? The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead. This podcast […]
Podcast: Download
Sharp words recently exchanged in the Jewish corners of the internet are extremely revealing about the challenges facing my friends in modern Orthodoxy. And they clarify why I am a heterodox, if generally traditional Jew. Rabbi Mordecai Willig, a senior figure at Yeshiva University, recently posted a d’var Torah in which he gave a full-throated […]
Over the past two years, influential Conservative rabbis have begun flirting with performing intermarriages and with relaxing conversion standards, or at least wringing their hands at Judaism’s traditional endogamy norm and the distress it is causing interfaith families. Given pervasive intermarriage — 58% of all American Jews marrying since 2000 wed gentiles — it may […]
On Wednesday night I was on the phone with my 92 year-old grandmother and she was complimenting me on my last newsletter (I have been sending her my Shabbat newsletters since my time at the JCC!). I interrupted her gushing and shared that I wasn’t quite sure what to write this week. She immediately responded, […]
It was a long but wonderful week at Shefa! For some of our students, it felt like they needed to re-acclimate and prepare themselves for the intensity of a full week after all of the interruptions of our calendar. But with the high holidays behind us, it was good to feel like we could get […]
Each year, as we approach Yom Kippur, we try to prepare and find ways to make new and relevant connections to this ancient holiday. This week, as I studied, I was struck by a teaching of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who argues that the essential task of Yom Kippur is to develop a sense of […]
Inspired by teachings from Amichai Lau-Lauvie and Sara Wolkenfeld May I stand filled with yirah (awe so powerful it has me momentarily silenced) as Yom Kippur’s final shofar sounds, just as my ancestors did at Mount Sinai. Yet, may the silence and stillness be momentary; may the sight of the ram’s horn not shock me […]
“You are (all) standing here today; all of you; in front of Adonai, your G-d.” So begins this week’s parsha, Nitzavim. In chapter 29, verses 9 & 10, Moses reminds us that each one of us, no matter our work, our income, our age, or our level of involvement in the community stands, today and […]
As things have settled down, I had the privilege to spend some more time in classrooms, observing reading groups, tfillah, social studies and Judaic studies. As I watched your children working on Rosh Hashanah projects while simultaneously working on their spelling, handwriting, punctuation and organizing their ideas, I couldn’t help but smile. This integration of […]
September is a time of transition. So, too, is this Hebrew month of Elul. We watch children begin or return to school or take a next career or life step. No matter their age or stage of life, we hope that our children have the skills and confidence to comfortably face the content and the […]
