At this time of crisis, we pray that Hashem will bless all of us with good health and wellbeing. I offer this interpretation of a passage in the Haggadah and hope it provides a framework for coping better. It originally appeared in this week's issue of the Jewish Press.
Zina Schiff, a concert violinist, has performed and recorded on five continents. Her first recording was the solo violin score for MGM's The Fixer, and a major focus of her 16 CDs is classical Jewish music. This article appears in issue 28 of Conversations, the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. It was reprinted in issue 35 of Conversations.
Perhaps, under these circumstances, observant Jews must use telecommunications to keep tabs on isolated neighbors, friends, or relatives. Observant Jews in isolation must decide whether to use devices to call on their support systems.
This article offers important advice on how to maintain our physical and mental health during this stressful time. It was sent to the Manhattan Day School community by the school's principal, Mrs. Raizi Chechik.
Many of the central themes in the Haggadah are rooted in biblical thought. Among other teachings, the exodus forms the basis for the singular covenantal relationship between God and Israel; it highlights God’s greatness in history; and it serves as the model for the future redemption. In this essay, we will survey examples from various sections of Tanakh to see how these and related themes are developed.
There is one supreme God who is the Creator of all nature, and there are no forces competing with God. God is absolutely free. God is timeless, ageless, nonphysical, and eternal. Nature is a stage on which God expresses His will in history. Rituals do not harness independent magical powers and do not work automatically.
With Hashem’s help, this crisis too shall pass. Until it does, your health care workers are all braving this pandemic to treat the ill. So too everyone must do his and her part to protect the most vulnerable among us. In this pursuit, we are all healers and partners with Hashem in saving the world.
Thinking Jews should be standing up for a genuine modern Orthodoxy that insists on functioning in contemporary world-time. While facing modernity has its real challenges, not facing modernity will lead Orthodoxy into a cult-like existence-- out of touch with reality, out of touch with the needs of thinking and feeling human beings…out of touch with Torah itself.
Self-initiated directed travel can be undertaken whenever decision-making is needed on a pressing matter, or when feels chronically bored, stagnant, or emotionally adrift. One chooses an unfamiliar location at least several hours
away by transportation, preferably where extended strolling or hiking is possible, and goes there alone.
As we approach Pessah, all of us are deeply concerned by the Covid 19 pandemic. We worry about health…physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, financial etc. Most of us are sheltering in place; our world is contracting.
