Min haMuvhar

Thoughts for Shabbat Teshuvah and Yom Kippur

Although we popularly refer to the upcoming fast day as Yom Kippur, the Torah calls it Yom haKippurim—the day of atonements (in the plural). The plural form reminds us that there are many roads to atonement. Each person is different and is on a unique spiritual level; each comes with different insights, experiences, memories. The roads to atonement are plural, because no two of us have identical needs.

The Problematic Practice of "Kapparot"

During the Rosh Hashana/Yom Kippur period, some Jews have a custom known as “kapparot.” The ceremony involves swinging a live chicken over a person’s head three times, and then slaughtering the chicken. People who follow this practice believe that the ritual is a form of atonement (kapparah) for their sins. Many people see it as a primitive, quasi-idolatrous practice. Others view “kapparot” as egregious cruelty to animals.

Sephardic Haskalah

From the second half of the nineteenth century, Haskalah ideas filtered into the Sephardic communities in Muslim lands, especially through the efforts of the schools of the Alliance Israelite Universelle—bastions of French culture. The influence of European colonial powers in North Africa and the Middle East was also an important factor in Sephardic intellectual life. The impact of the Haskalah could not be altogether ignored.

DACA and Halakha: Concern for Immigrants

The Deferred Action to Childhood Arrivals program gave about 800,000 young people — individuals who had arrived in the U.S. ten or more years ago at age 16 or younger — a chance to legally study or work here. The President and Congress are in the midst of discussions to legislatively address the status of Daca recipients. Many of these "dreamers" have lived most of their lives in the US and are constructive members of our society.