A great back-and-forth

It’s time like this that I remember why I love the unique world of blogging.
A few days ago, an edition of Ten Minutes of Torah written by Lewis M. Barth appreared. This issue suggested (gasp) that Reform Jews might begin to observe Tishah B’Av.
Then, over at RJ.org, a post written by Rabbi Joel R. Schwartzman appeared expressing extreme [...]

Service Times: The Summer Solution

I was on Long Island most of last week. On Friday night, I attended services at the Community Synagogue in Port Washington. On Firday nights in the summer, they manage to lead services in a way that does not contradict the position of the sun. I’ll explain.
In most congregation, if Firday night services begin at 7:30, they always begin at 7:30, even during [...]

The Blog of Legends

If you’re like me, you’re always looking for the next Jewblog to add to your list of rss feeds. Look no further for your next one; here comes Sefer Ha-Bloggadah. I’ll explain.
Beginning at the National Havurah Committee Summer Institute on August 16th, a group of people across the world will begin their daf yomi-style study of Sefer Ha-Aggadah. To quote Ben Dreyfus, our fearless leader in this quasi-daunting venture, “Sefer Ha-Aggadah [...]

[blank]ism

Three thoughts, which are, to me, self-evident:
1. Zionism is the belief that it’s good for Jews to live in Israel as an independent nation.
2. I am a Zionist.
3. All people are of equal worth.
The first two of those thoughts obviously go together. The third one didn’t necessarily enter into the equation in my brain until relatively recently. If [...]

Mi Shebeirach. WTF? II

You may recall my post from December called “Mi Shebeirach. WTF?” Here we are months later and a commenter called Bella has posted a fascinating and long comment about the halachah of the isse of praying for the ill on Shabat. Totally engaging, in my opinion, if a little dense. I recommend it.

Meanwhile at RJ.org…

Yesterday’s post, Foreign Prophets, Foreign Songs, has been crossposted to RJ.org. There’s a lively discussion in the comments there as well, which you should all feel free to check out.

Tyler Benjamin on Reform Judaism @ RJ.org

I forgot to mention this when it happened the other day. The series continues at RJ.org with the thoughts of Tyler Benjamin.

Foreign prophets, foreign songs

Two summers ago, here at Kutz, a girls’ cabin led services one day. As we all entered the tron, they were standing at the front singing and clapping their hands. The song goes like this:
Lord, prepare me
To be a sanctuary
Pure and holy
Tried and true
With thanksgiving
I’ll be a living
Sanctuary for you
It’s a nice song. The message is fairly basic [...]

ציצת טליסמן

I first wrote about my practice of wearing tzitzit via a talit katan every day here. That was in November of 2006. It’s been over a year and a half since that post. I think it’s about time to do a little review of my practice of wearing tzitzit.

As noted in the first post about tzitzit, I (famously, in [...]

Leslie Bass on Reform Judaism @ RJ.org

The series continues at RJ.org with the thoughts of Leslie Bass.