The news keeps on coming in the Madoff Meltdown, and it’s not getting any better. But the comments to last week’s post about this mess have been great and they demand a response about the relationship between concepts like justice, compassion, t’shuvah (repentance) and kapparah (atonement). They are not mutually exclusive, even as applied to…

Because Zvi’s comments on today’s original post about Hanukkah as a story of the fight against assimilation, are so important, so clearly stated and so wrong, I want to respond. The quick response is that far from “careless”, my reading of history is actually historical. While it may not comfort the pietists amongst us, it…

For many, the message of Hanukkah is that miracles really do happen and that they can happen for us. This story, found in the Babylonian Talmud, recounts how upon entering the newly liberated Temple in Jerusalem, the Hasmonean soldiers found only a tiny vase containing enough oil to light the Menorah for a single day.…

New House Minority Whip, Eric Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the House, spoke tellingly with US News and World Report’s Dan Gilgoff. Cantor’s comments are intriguing, especially those about the role of Judaism in his politics, the importance Jewish Republicans and his definition of support for Israel. Noting that Jewishness is important to him,…

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