Articles

Book Review

Pesah: Insights from the Past, Present, and Future (The Habura, 2022)

Rabbi Hayyim Angel

As we are in the season of Yom Hashoa, I think of Rembrandt’s superb Large Self-Portrait. It cast a spell on me when I first saw it. But on Yom Hashoa it invites thoughts that penetrate deeper into my very being. When trying to do the impossible—imagining what happened to members of my family and to millions of other Jews who perished in the Holocaust—Rembrandt’s self portrait awakens me from my slumber.

By opening with the story of creation, the Torah teaches that one must have a living relationship with the natural world in order to enter and maintain a living relationship with God. Jewish spirituality flowers and deepens through this relationship and is organically linked to the natural rhythms of the universe. To a great extent, Jewish religious traditions serve to bring us into a sensitive relationship with the natural world.

Rabbi Hayyim Angel reviews an important new book by Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn.

The Jewish Press newspaper has a bi-weekly column in which a panel of rabbis is asked to comment on relevant questions. Rabbi Marc D. Angel is one of the respondents and here are his replies to some of the recent questions.

Far from being only a necessary skill for entering the work force or getting into law school, literature that includes the broadest possible range of voices and experiences itself fulfills a Torah value. Without it, we would be hard pressed truly to internalize the basic fact of God’s spark in every human soul.

Book Review

Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Exodus (Regnery Faith, 2018)

Rabbi Hayyim Angel

Bridging Traditions will benefit scholars and laypeople alike. It particularly is a must-read for rabbis and Jewish educators, who will appreciate the spiritual wealth we gain and impart to our students and communities by teaching the wholeness of the Jewish people.

The story is actually about two lots (Purim)--the pur of Haman, and the Divine Providence espoused by Mordecai and Esther.

While we modern Jews cannot hope to achieve the unity and self-control of the ancient Persian Jewish community, we can focus on the really big issues which confront the Jewish people, and think how each of us can be constructive members of our community. We can know when action is necessary and helpful, and when action is counter-productive and misguided.