Author:

This author has written 241 articles
Israel Matters!

Israel Matters! – May 2024

What We Learned on Our Academic Visit to Israel

The article below written by Edward H. Kaplan and Evan Morris originally appeared March 29, 2024 on newsweek.com (https://www.newsweek.com/what-we-learned-our-academic-visit-israel-opinion-1885030). Reproduced with permission for Israel Matters

 We represent a group of 25 Yale faculty who have just returned from a five-day visit to Israel. Our mission was to learn from and make meaningful academic connections with our Israeli counterparts. Much of what we learned and observed astounded us. (more…)

Comments Off on Israel Matters! – May 2024
Rabbi's Corner

40 Years in the Desserts

40 Years in the Desserts

First, a happy and gratified thank you, to all who worked so hard on our “40 Years in the Desserts” celebration.
What a great night it was because of all the hard work of Steve Schulefand and his legendary singers and Lauren Piscitille and her hard-working committee. (more…)

Comments Off on 40 Years in the Desserts
President's Message

May 2024: President’s Message

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined us on March 30, 2024 in honoring Rabbi Scolnic for his remarkable 40 years of service, dedication, and love for our congregation and community. It was a joyous occasion filled with warmth, laughter, and cherished memories. Here is an excerpt of my welcome message: (more…)

Comments Off on May 2024: President’s Message
Odds & Ends / Webmaster's Odds & Ends

The Two-Minute Haggadah

A Passover service for the impatient.

By Michael Rubiner March 25, 2013

On Monday night at sundown, Jews everywhere will begin celebrating the first night of Passover. Before they can eat their unleavened meal, though, they’ll have to complete the Seder, a religious service conducted on the first and sometimes second nights of the eight-day holiday that can often seem interminable. In 2006, Michael Rubiner drafted a plan for a shorter, sweeter Seder. His proposal is printed below. (more…)

Comments Off on The Two-Minute Haggadah
Odds & Ends / Webmaster's Odds & Ends

THE RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY PESAH GUIDE

THE RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY PESAH GUIDE 1טתשע”

The Committee on Jewish Law & Standards (CJLS) Kashrut Subcommittee2
Introduction by Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, Chair, CJLS

Stories play a key role in identifying a religion or nation, especially the ones at the center of a community’s history and ritual, the ones taught to members of the community from an early age and repeated often by adults in rituals and prayers. Such master stories express in easily understandable and emotionally compelling terms a community’s understanding of its origins, its values, and its goals. If one were to compare the view of life and humanity embedded in the master stories of, for example, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism – and the United States, China, and Israel – one would find deep differences in how these various human communities understand who they are as individuals and as a community, what is important in life, and what they should strive for. Judaism’s master story is the Exodus from Egypt, followed by the trek to Mount Sinai and then to the Promised Land of Israel. We leave Egypt not as individuals but as a nation, and we do so only with the help of God. This is very different from the staunch individualism at the heart of the liberalism that has forged most Western countries. At Mount Sinai we engage in a Covenant with God that establishes the basis of our relationship with God – and the duties of that relationship  or ourselves and all our descendants. (more…)

Comments Off on THE RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY PESAH GUIDE
Israel Matters!

Israel Matters! – April 2024

Back to Israel

(David Margolis, Guest Columnist)

I was a guest contributor for this column last July where I shared my “Reflections on a First Tour of Israel” following TBS’ May 2023 Israel Trip.  I ended that column with: “On the flight back to the States I knew two things to be true – that I would return to Israel as often as possible, and if I no longer felt safe as a Jew in America I would be welcomed and protected in Israel.  Like Home.” (more…)

Comments Off on Israel Matters! – April 2024
Rabbi's Corner

Purim vs. Passover 

Purim vs. Passover 

Purim and Passover both come in the spring, but they are very different. One is the story of a near-genocide of the Jews of Persia; some brave heroes stood up to power and saved their people. Now it’s basically a time for fun and games and noisemakers and costumes. These days, it is largely a holiday for children. Purim is a lot of fun, but we don’t think much about its lessons. Comedy laughs at danger. (more…)

Comments Off on Purim vs. Passover 
President's Message

April 2024: President’s Message

If you’re eager for a glimpse into the Rabbi’s 40th Celebration, you’ll need to wait until the May Bulletin. Meanwhile, let me share highlights from some recent special events at TBS, all occurring on Sundays. (more…)

Comments Off on April 2024: President’s Message
Rabbi's Corner

I like to ask stupid questions.

I like to ask stupid questions.

I like to go back to a blank blackboard and start from the very basic ideas. During this terrible ordeal when Jewish people all over the world are worried about everything happening to and in the State of Israel, some claim that Israel is a colonial power that is usurping the right of Palestinians to their land. I know that most Israelis are the children and grandchildren of refugees who were exiled from their homes in Europe and the Middle East; Israel is anything but a colonial power. I know that the land does not belong to a group that did not even exist decades ago. I know that this these claims against Israel are all false. And yet I also know that Israel has unfortunately has often needed to re-establish or re-enforce its claim to its land through war, from its War of Independence in 1948 to the current conflict. (more…)

Comments Off on I like to ask stupid questions.