“Gee, I think the toughest thing about being Orthodox would be the kosher food,” my dad has occasionally said to me. He’s always enjoyed a good restaurant meal and, in truth, fine dining is not among the Orthodox community’s top priorities. But I would say the hardest thing that Jewish life asks you to give…

I received an email from a Jewish historian and journalist I respect very much, including this thought: I envy your finding [spiritual life] “at home” so to speak in Judaism, but alas the worship of a Jewish God who found the Holocaust necessary for his “plan” is just impossible for me. Obviously he’s not the…

I’ve learned to temper both my thoughts and how I express them — a little bit! — since I wrote a 1998 piece for First Things about the Holocaust in light of the Hebrew Bible that was subsequently denounced in the letters-to-the-editor section as “horrible,” “ghastly,” “blasphemy,” “appalling,” “racist,” “heartless,” “impious,” “hateful,” “primitive,” “cruel,” and “evil.” Oh…

National Review Online thoughtfully offers a nice little roundup of a recommended Passover reading. Marshall Breger recommends: Aaron Wildavsky’s Moses as a Political Leader assists one in understanding the Bible generally and the Passover story specifically in political terms. The political saga of the Jewish people is a story worth remembering. The Haggadah, of course,…

More from Beliefnet and our partners
More from Beliefnet and our partners
Close Ad