Former President Gerald Ford passed away on Tuesday. Ford was the only person in America’s history to date who became president without ever being elected to national office. In 1973 he was serving as House Minority Leader, a Congressman from Michigan. He was appointed Vice President in 1973 after Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace...
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Cluelessness is apparently not limited to media personalities — it can be found in the US House of Representatives as well. Dennis Prager started a storm of discussion in the media and the blogosphere with his opinion piece saying it was wrong for freshman Congressman Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to...
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I'm actually not going to be giving a sermon this week, as I'll be on vacation in Colorado. But I came across a news item that has a connection (well, admittedly rather tenuous connection) to this week's Torah portion, so here's a little Torah anyway. This week's Torah portion is Miketz -- the continuation...
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This morning’s Haftorah is a selection from the prophet Zachariah, spoken in the late 6th century BCE, at a time when the Persian king Darius gave the Jews permission to rebuild the Temple. The rebuilding of the Temple requires the purification of the priests and the preparation of the special vessels used in the...
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I just got back from the first ever Rabbinic Conference on Judaism and Human Rights in New York, sponsored by Rabbis for Human Rights. It was an outstanding conference. The learning sessions were excellent. When I get into a discussion of working with Rabbis for Human Rights, some of my more politically conservative colleagues...
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And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let...
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