Blog

There is a point in time when attacks upon houses of worship became an acceptable expression of H to some Americans, and that date was August 5, 2012. On that date, a gunman entered a gurdwara (a place of worship and assembly for Sikhs) in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and murdered six worshippers. I do not propose to ignore bombings of Black churches in the previous millennium, but rather note that...Read more...

The Rabbis of the Talmud had a term for it: Sinat Chinam, causeless H. This was their explanation of the cause for the destruction of both Holy Temples, which we recall on Tisha B’av, and occurs this year on August 7. The Rabbis even went so far as to memorialize a story about one man publicly insulting another at his daughter’s wedding, with one Rabbi witnessing it and saying nothing as a silent assent. The...Read more...

“Oh no, not again!” was my initial response to the mass shooting in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. Why should it surprise me that there was another mass shooting, this on July 4? There have been 314 mass shootings in the United States this year, which is 314 too many, and mathematically approximating two per day. How many times can the scab continue to be ripped off, the wound never...Read more...

I was listening to the news on the radio the other day when a shorter version of a prior evening’s broadcast was shared. The essence was a tragic story of a woman whose son had been pulled so far into the deep darkness of H that he was teaching his children the same, and she could no longer take it and kicked her son and family out of the house. Immediately the song from South Pacific, “You’ve Got to be...Read more...

Most people who have access to good health care have an annual physical. We know that this is an important maintenance task. So too we arrange to have the oil changed and our car checked out thoroughly so that we drive in a safe vehicle. We should have our HVAC system cleaned and checked regularly. The insurance policies that we purchase are annually reviewed and renewed as well.  These...Read more...