With grief and sorrow in his voice he pleaded with us, “I need a hug. That’s all I need from Israel, from my home, I need a hug. Somebody needs to embrace me because I can’t hold out for much … Read more...
As some of you may know my wife, Alyson, is one of the Assistant Directors at Crane Lake Camp. Crane Lake Camp is one of the camps affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism it’s also where Alyson and I … Read more...
There is a joke that all Rabbinical Students and graduates of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion share, or at least we did when I went there. It has to do with what our seminary didn’t teach … Read more...
For as long as I can remember, the phrase “The Kol Nidrei Sermon” has always been synonymous with the phrase “The Israel Sermon.” The congregation that I grew up in has had only three senior rabbis, Rick Jacobs, Sue Ann … Read more...
While I am from Brooklyn, I did something in the summer of 2000 which, unknown to me, was probably my first act of becoming a true New Jersian and that was that a friend of mine and I went to … Read more...
Every year during the summer Alyson and I usually take the boys up to a place called The Chautauqua Institute. It’s in Upstate New York and it’s where my in-laws, Beth and Les, spend their summers. I like to describe … Read more...
The Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, the seminary where both Rabbi Glasser and I were ordained, while a fantastic seminary, has not always been good with talking about God and spirituality. For example, I was in my … Read more...
In the Book of Leviticus, there is a commandment that states, “You shall not hate another in your heart” and in the Talmud, there is a discussion about it.1 The sages very clearly wrestle with this commandment and wonder what … Read more...
If there’s one thing that we enjoy, it’s a good story. In fact, one might say that Jews are the original story-telling people. Long before we theologized, philosophized, and rhapsodized about religion, we told stories around the campfire. Judaism does … Read more...
I have always been interested in where we draw our “lines of disbelief.” The “line of disbelief” is that barrier between what you are able to accept as being plausible and what is just one step too far. The Torah … Read more...
