Asking Questions
Jan 27, 1996 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Bo
Isidor I. Rabi, who was born in Austria in 1898, won the Nobel prize in physics in 1944.
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Forging Faith: Persistent Human Effort Vs. Divine Miracles
Feb 3, 1996 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Beshallah
The end of a story often illuminates its beginning.
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Fulfilling Our Potential
Sep 28, 2012 By Jonathan Milgram | Commentary | Devarim
When the end of the week arrives and we settle into our Friday night routine of rituals, I often try to encapsulate in a few short sentences what I think is the main thought or idea in the parashah so that my children leave the table with a “takeaway” lesson.
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Conquering Passions
Oct 28, 1995 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Noah
My favorite Jewish ritual is the recitation of havdalah at the end of Shabbat. It is a love rooted in childhood.
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A Message for 9/11
Sep 17, 2001 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah
When the high priest in the days of the Temple emerged from the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, he intoned a special prayer for those inhabitants of ancient Israel who lived at heightened risk from natural catastrophes, that “their homes might not become their graves.”
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How Can People Be Holy?
Apr 1, 2016 By Stephen A. Geller | Commentary | Shemini
Shemini (Lev. 9–11) contains two main topics: the elaborate sacrificial rites performed on the eighth day of the dedication of the Tabernacle, and the laws regarding kosher and nonkosher animals. The first topic details the numerous sacrifices accompanying the last stages of the dedication of the shrine, which reach an intensity matched only by the yearly rites of the Day of Atonement. This is no accident, because the annual event is meant to restore the shrine to the purity it possessed on the day it was dedicated.
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Vulnerability and Joy
Oct 10, 2009 By David Hoffman | Commentary | Shemini Atzeret | Sukkot
How do we make sense of two of the central narratives of the holiday of Sukkot that seemingly point us in different emotional directions?
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Tarry a Day Longer
Oct 14, 2006 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Shemini Atzeret
For me as a child Sh’mini Atzeret was without question the least memorable among the Jewish holidays of the fall season. Sandwiched between the high drama of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the pageantry of Sukkot on one hand and the revelry of Simhat Torah on the other, Sh’mini Atzeret often seemed more like a way station than a destination. It had only two distinguishing characteristics. The first, the prayer for rain, seemed to me supremely irrelevant and even perverse; I wasn’t a farmer and I liked spending time outdoors, so what was the upside to rain? The second, Yizkor, was depressing; in any case in the synagogue of my youth those lucky enough to have parents who were alive and well repaired to the lobby to schmooze while the sad and serious business of Yizkor took place behind closed doors.
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