Commentary

Deuteronomy Chapter 28, verse 6 was a promise to the Israelites if they followed divine commandments and remained on the path established for them in the Torah.  

Life is a brief state, distinguished from non-living substances as having the capacity for growth, the ability to get and use energy, and to reproduce.

By David M. Glickman
Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom

This article first appeared in the Times of Israel

In a column in Tablet Magazine, Liel Leibovitz scolds rabbis and synagogue boards who limit synagogue attendance during this second year of Covid High Holidays.

I was a writer before I became a rabbi and High Holiday sermons usually come easily to me. Some years I have so many ideas and teachings and hopes to share that I accidentally write more sermons than I need to give.

I was born at the old St. Joseph’s Hospital on Linwood Boulevard and was fortunate to have been reared in an Orthodox Jewish family. When my parents brought me home from the hospital, I stopped breathing eight times and would have died had my father not instinctively thrown me into the air to catch my breath. Who would have thought I’d live this long?

Ben Mondry is the winner of the 2021 KC Lodge #184, B’nai Brith essay contest, which encompassed more than 50 area schools, churches, synagogues, and youth groups. The Blue Valley North graduating senior received $2,000 and will be attending the University of Kansas in the fall. His essay is below:

When Nazi tanks surrounded Warsaw, my father related in a rare moment of frustration, the Jews were in shul arguing over who should get “shishi” (the honor of being called up third to the Torah).

(JTA) — The ancestry of the son of a Jewish refugee in the Democratic Republic of Congo has emerged as a flashpoint for a political crisis that is threatening the integrity of the massive African country.

Anyone teaching the past by skipping over the unpleasant parts isn’t teaching history. They are engaged in propaganda.

There’s an entire global industry dedicated to vilifying and isolating Israel, the world’s only Jewish-majority nation.

Where’s the outrage?