Thoughts on being Jewish

With no major holidays during the summer (Passover and Shavuoth behind us, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur far ahead), it feels as if most people take "off" being Jewish at this time of year. I, personally, don't go to synagogue. I don't take religious class. And yet, of course I can't escape being Jewish just as surely as one cannot shuck off his or her Christian or Muslim identity. My Temple holds many services outside - the better to thank G-d for all that surrounds us. I just try to be more... Sign in to see full entry.

I wrote this for my newspaper column two years ago. It still applies now - and then some.... Hamas was a major topic of discussion as we toured through Israel last week. Two years ago we took the same trip, though the situation was vastly different. Two years ago, Hamas was in the news not for its political success, but for the brutality and frequency of its acts of terror. Israeli buses, hotels, University cafeterias, ice-cream shops, pizzerias and nightclubs were being blown up at an alarming... Sign in to see full entry.

Scientists in Israel are adept at making the dessert bloom. Most of the State of Israel was once the hostile scrub-brush environment described by Mark Twain in his travelogue, "Innocents Abroad" until the Jewish pioneers of the early 1900's got a hold of it. Now, that tiny country exports more flowers - grown in hydroponic greenhouses that dot the Negev - the barren South - than almost every other country in the world. So, it's no surprise that two Israeli architects designed an energy efficient... Sign in to see full entry.

If we enjoy earthly pleasures, without reciting a blessing, the Talmud says that it is like stealing from G-d. And so there are blessings (short ones, thankfully) for virtually everything. Breaking bread - there's a blessing for that. Is it cake? Different blessing. You say a blessing after washing your hands before a meal, and right before taking off on a trip. There's a blessing for seeing a RAINBOW! And a blessing for the sunrise. There is even a blessing for going to the bathroom - which I'd... Sign in to see full entry.

A holiday that most non-Jews don’t know about came and went this week. Shavuoth, which was celebrated this past Sunday night until Tues. night – commemorates the receiving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. Shavuoth began as one of three “festival holidays” when thousands of years ago Jews from Palestine and surrounding countries made pilgrimages to Jerusalem to offer first grown grains and fruits of the season. The Book of Ruth, the quintessential story about a non-Jewish wife taking on her dead... Sign in to see full entry.