People who pay attention to what they read realize, as I describe in detail in my book “Mysteries of Judaism,” that none of the Jewish holidays are practiced today as the Torah mandates. The rabbis made extensive changes in Torah laws because of changes in human circumstances. What do we know about Sukkot? The [...]
In her book “Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet,” Dr. Erica Brown accepts the view held by many scholars that Jonah son of Amitai is the same man who in II Kings 14:25-27 gave King Jeroboam II the divine prophecy to expand his kingdom in the eight century BCE. She accepts the biblical story in the biblical [...]
Yom Hakippurim: A Holiday The Romans Destroyed Like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur does not exist in the Bible. It replaces another day known as Yom Hakippurim. Yom Kippur is singular, “day of atonement,” while Yom Hakippurim is plural, “day of atonements.” The biblical Yom Hakippurim is mentioned in Leviticus 16:29–31, 23:27–32, and Numbers 29:7–11. No work [...]
Have you ever wondered why Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are not highlighted in the Torah as pilgrimage holidays, as Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot are? This is because neither Rosh Hashanah nor Yom Kippur are biblical holidays. Both replaced biblical holidays, and are notably different from the holidays they replaced.[1] The biblical holiday Yom Teruah, [...]
Nachmanides was a famed Bible and Talmud commentator. His real name was Moses ben Nahman Gerondi. He is known in Hebrew as Ramban and in European languages as Nahmanides, also spelt Nachmanides (1194-1270). He was a mystic and had mystical ideas. What are some of his views? Among much else, Nahmanides believed that Jews [...]
Although for 24 hours seven days a week before Hurricane Irma hit Florida the weather forecasters foretold that there was a good chance the hurricane would hit my city Boca Raton, Florida, I knew that there was a good chance that it would not do so. And I was right. How did I know? [...]
I watched the 1945 black and white film “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and it reminded me of some serious questions. The film a perfect portrayal of Oscar Wilde's famous tale of a handsome young man, living in 1886 London, who looked at a picture painted of him and said sadly that while he [...]
The views of Abraham Joshua Heschel and Maimonides The late Abraham [...]
My answer is no. Ever since I was a child, I heard about faith and understood that it makes no sense. One day when I was still young my father Rabbi Dr. Nathan Drazin took me to hear a lecture by the famous Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Heschel said the faith is not a Jewish [...]
In 1986, the Lubavitcher Rebbe invited me to speak with him and requested that I, an American Army General, speak at Army bases around the world about the Seven Noahide Commandments. Although I try to think rationally and not mystically like the Rebbe, I did so, and this is a version of that speech. [...]
The tashlich ceremony preserves a superstitious belief held by Jews of ancient times concerning water and the divine beings that dwell in and around it. The [...]
Abraham Joshua Heschel’s book Torah min hashamayim (translated into English by Gordon Tucker as “Heavenly Torah: As refracted Through the Generations”) reveals a truth that most rabbis do not know or, if they know, refuse to reveal. The methodologies of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael differed on how to interpret the Torah, and only [...]
Many rabbis, even those who do not claim to be mystics, are convinced that the Zohar is a holy book and quote from it in their sermons. They think that the Zohar was composed by Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai around the year 130 CE. However, scholars recognize that Moses d’ Leon, a Spaniard living [...]
One of the best-loved books in Judaism is the Spanish Jewish poet Yehuda Halevi’s Kuzari (around 1075-1141), a book that was completed around 1140. It is considered by many to be an easy-to-read and informative book of philosophy that expresses, in the opinion of many, the basic principles of Judaism. Halevi’s goal was to demonstrate, [...]
On Sunday, I posted remarks about the horrible practice of mistreating chickens. The following is a shortened version of what I wrote about kapparot generally in my book “Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind.” Many Jews recognized that the kapparot ceremony was based on superstition, that waiving a chicken over one’s head a magical number of [...]
I received the following from The Shamayim V’aretz Institute about the cruelty practiced against animals during the kapparos (also spelt kapparot) ceremony that many Orthodox Jews observe. I agree with what is stated and I think it is important for everyone to know about the cruelty. Therefore, I am printing it here. And I will [...]
Many people, secular and religious, of different cultures and worldviews, have attempted to calculate the age of the world. There is no agreement between them simply because it is an impossible task. Christians,[1] Muslims, and Jews have tried to do the calculation based on a literal reading of the Bible and have come up [...]
There are various views about mistaken rabbinical decisions. Maimonides answers "no." Here is what I wrote in my book “Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind.” Rabbi Solomon Yitzchaqi (1040–1105), better known as Rashi, the acronym of his name, makes a rather remarkable and, in the mind of many, counterintuitive statement in his commentary to Deuteronomy 17:11. [...]
The Israeli Chief Rabbinate insists that conversions must be done their way, implying that the Torah tells us how it must be done. They blackballed dozens of rabbis by name who they charge did not convert people using their method. There are good reasons to think that the concept of conversion did not exist [...]
Fasts Observed for Events That Did Not Occur on the Day of the Fast The Jewish calendar contains a mourning period during the summer months. It begins and ends with fast days, whose precise dates [...]
In “Inconsistency in the Torah,” Rabbi Dr. Joshua A. Berman, addresses questions that have bothered scholars and clergy for centuries—the many seeming contradictions that are found in the Torah, in both its narrative and legal portions. He offers a solution that they ignored, a solution that makes sense. He suggests that many of the [...]
Fritz Lang (1890-1976) one of the greatest German film directors, who directed German and American films, considered M his greatest film. His mother was born Jewish but converted to Catholicism. Because of his family's Jewish origin, he escaped Germany in 1934 and came to the US. M was filmed while he was still in Germany [...]
The Bible does not discuss ethics Ethics is a subject that people speak about often and most people think that the Torah must discuss [...]
Finally, after many years of demeaning mistreatment by ultra-orthodox haredi men who ignore some of their teachers who tell them it is ok to sit next to a woman, people who were also created by God, people who deserve the same respect given to men, the Israeli court has ruled that El Al acted [...]
I just read "Gender Equality and Prayer in Jewish Law" by Rabbis E. Tucker and M. Rosenberg. It is an excellent thoughtful book. Whether a reader agrees with the two rabbis who authored the book or not, he or she will find a wealth of information in the book that will prompt thought. Whether the [...]
The Mysterious Origin of the Monthly “Sanctification of the Moon” When a person examines the history of a religious practice, or any practice for that matter, he or she must be careful not to insist [...]
New revelations about the Torah and preventive medicine Dr. Michael Lebowitz’s “God’s Preventive Medicine” is a fascinating, eye-opening, and thought-provoking book that reveals never-before-known information about several biblical [...]
Some Words of Wisdom One of our readers sent me three wise thoughts that are worth pondering. I will add a fourth. Tikkun Olam - The repair of the world: If you see what needs to be repaired and how to repair it, then you have found a piece of the world that [...]
