The Path to Mitzvah
Sep 30, 2008 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah
If the Torah is fundamentally a book of law, a work intended to instruct us on how to live a life that is holy and good, why did the Torah begin with the story of creation? More precisely, why did the Torah begin with the story of Genesis—of God’s creation of the world—and not the first commandment to the Israelites which is to establish a calendar: “This month shall be unto you the beginning of the months,” found later in Exodus 12?
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The Psychology of Our Prayers
Sep 19, 2009 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah
Even when we are well-settled into friendships, marriages, or parenting, the quality of our connection with the people we care about most in the world has a lot to do with our happiness, our fulfillment in life, and our sense of belonging in the world.
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On Judaism and Islam
Sep 9, 2010 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah
Jews have prepared for the High Holiday season of repentance and renewal in 2010 with Muslims very much on our minds.
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A Call for Hope
Sep 10, 2011 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah
In the face of a litany of personal, societal, and global woes that has seemed particularly long this year; in the face of our nation’s inability to shake the economy loose or defeat our enemies or work together despite our differences, the Jewish calendar insists there is something new in store—or that there can be, if we together do as the Torah commands.
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The Fiction of Teshuvah
Nov 20, 2012
Does anyone ever really change their ways? Can we become “someone new”? Is teshuvah really possible, or is it just fiction? Best-selling authors Susan Isaacs and Linda Fairstein as they discuss this topic through the characters in their books.
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Rosh Hashanah Day 1
Jan 1, 1980
1 The Lord took note of Sarah as He had promised, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken.
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Rosh Hashanah Day 2
Jan 1, 1980
1 Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test. He said to him, “Abraham,” and he answered, “Here I am.”
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Rosh Hashanah Day 1
Jan 1, 1980
1 There was a man from Ramathaim of the Zuphites, in the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
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