When I learned how to study the work of the prolific medieval commentator Rashi from the wonderfully prolific Nechama Leibowitz, of blessed memory, in her tiny Jerusalem living room, she would always ask, “What’s Rashi’s question?” (or, more colorfully, as she was quite colorful: “What’s bugging Rashi?”). She was asking us to play an ancient…

What a pleasure it was to read Rabbi Jen Krause’s new book The Answer. Make no doubt about it this is not your regular self-help book. “The Answer” is more about realizing that ultimately life’s greatest challenge is coming to terms with the fact that sometimes we are so quick to find the answer that…

Rabbi Krause writes that she is not scared of new influences coming into Judaism–that bringing in new ideas and perspectives helps keep Judaism dynamic and relevant. This assertion is central to Reconstructionist Judaism’s approach to understanding how our religion works. Judaism is not, and never has been, a static series of laws and rituals that…

Improving the self–whether through books, magazines, prayer, meditation, or study–has always been a Jewish enterprise and the rabbis were among history’s first “life coaches.” Today it is the same. I do not have one doubt that Judaism continues to offer a variety of ways we’ve already discovered and approaches yet to be revealed, which are…

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