When I was growing up, like most (if not all) of you reading this, I was told that the reason we celebrate Chanukah was that the single cruse of oil the Maccabees found when they regained the Temple somehow lasted for eight days. The so-called miracle of the oil! It...

Though my grandmother lived her entire adult life of more than 50 years in this country, in many respects, her worldview was that of a pious woman whose days were determined by the Jewish calendar. Every Thursday morning, for example, the newspapers were taken off the...

One of the questions I am frequently asked, especially by millennials who are in search of like-minded others who wish to gather and support each other in their personal and spiritual growth, is, “How do we find and/or create such a community?” While “finding” one may...

The word “rabbi” is actually made up of two Hebrew words—“master” and “my”—so when you call someone “rabbi” you are literally referring to that person as “my master.” Before you get turned off and think this has something to do with slavery, master, in this sense, was...

A friend of mine who is a prominent business consultant says that if one goes into a bookstore and looks for the titles in the Chemistry section, they will find only a few books as everyone knows what chemistry is and is not; besides, chemistry has not changed much in...

Are you thriving or merely surviving? In my latest book, BeyondSurvival, I make an outlandish proposal. That in spite of all the signs to the contrary—growing world-wide anti-Semitism, assimilation, shrinking demographics, synagogue and Day School closings, loss of...

Okay, there are so many levels at which to deal with Bibi’s latest stunt. The simplest is to chalk it off to election posturing, trying to eat into Lieberman’s supporters by going further right. I suspect that is his primary motivation. After all, he is...

Much has been written in these past couple of weeks since President Trump’s outrageous charge that one cannot be a Democrat and a loyal Jew. I do not want to get into that. He’s been told. When I was growing up in the previous century (sounds crazy to say that) my...

Imagine a friend with whom you have lost touch, either out of neglect or because of some rift. Time has passed and you are feeling a bit uncomfortable about the whole loss of relationship. The person is trying to reconnect, sending emails, texts, looking you up on...

Though not exclusive to Judaism, all Jewish prayer falls into three distinct categories—gratitude, awe, and petition. Gratitude Judaism wants us to inculcate an “attitude of gratitude” as a basic life stance. We are, each of us, regardless of our particular life...