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Truths You Can Use

Forgiving others often involves struggle. As I wrote a few months ago, forgiveness does not necessarily mean condoning. Rather, it means accepting, moving on, and not holding your life hostage to the actions of another person. Does this same logic apply, however, to the actions of a public official? As one of my congregants recently…

Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said that “Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.” Foolish consistency is clinging to a viewpoint when all evidence points to the contrary. It is refusing to change when change is the only approach that makes sense. We see a beautiful historical illustration of this truth in a study of…

Every Jewish worship service has space for silent prayer. Yet, many of us find it difficult to pray and reflect in such moments. We tend to feel most comfortable when either speaking or listening. “Judaism,” said Elie Wiesel, “has its times of silence. But we never talk about them.”  Perhaps it would be wise to…

Jews and Muslim share a remarkable history. Medieval Jewish scholars read Aristotle and Plato in the Arabic translation. The masterpiece of Jewish philosophy–Maimonides’ Guide to the Perplexed–was written in Arabic. The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have witnessed the deterioraton of that relationship. While Jewish-Christian relations have never been better, Jewish-Muslim dialogue consistently falters. What We…

In 1903 philosopher W.E.B. DuBois said the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line. The problem of the 21st century may well be the problem of the religion line. The two are interconnected and feed off each other. This truth came into sharp focus last week in a Sikh temple…

The words Jewish wedding and Hava Nagila usually occur together. Hava Nagila literally means “Let us rejoice” and it is a traditional Jewish wedding song combining a raucous melody with a mind-boggling dance. The dancers form ever enlarging circles around the bride and groom, who are eventually raised and held high in chairs. I love…

The Bible is not just for clergy. It is for everyone. Studying it enriches our lives. It connects us with our past, present and future. “Knowledge,” Rabbi Arnold Wolf once said, “isn’t everything. It is, profoundly, the only thing.” If we want to study and gain knowledge, we can find the time. How do make…

It is summertime, and over the last few weeks, the livin’ has not been easy. The murders in Colorado and Bulgaria; the beginning of the Olympics marred by a refusal to acknowledge the 1972 Munich Massacre; an increasingly ugly political campaign–I am usually a glass half full kind of guy, but with these events and…

“Prayer,” Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “may not bring water to parched fields, nor mend a broken bridge, nor rebuild a ruined city. But prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, rebuild a weakened will.” These words reveal a profound truth. Faith is not about power. Faith is not about numbers. Faith is…

In Judaism human beings are not tainted by an original sin. We are born, as Rabbi David Wolpe puts it, with “an original split.” We arrive with dual tendencies. Capable of profound acts of goodness, we can also choose horrific acts of evil. The purpose of religion is to harness the good. It is to…
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