Gratitude For Blessings Weakens the Curses Of Depressing News

Last updated on: November 27, 2019 at 3:11 pm By Rabbi Allen S. Maller

Training people to view their own life positively is increasingly important, especially because many people form all kinds of negative attitudes about life based on the news media’s constant emphasis on all the world’s evils and tragedies. It is obvious that we all will suffer the loss of people we love to the inevitability of death. This is painful and sorrowful. Everyone also fears having a serious illness and their own eventual death. Today, fears, depression, anxiety, and frustration, create... Read more

Hajj In Qur’an and Bible

Last updated on: August 5, 2019 at 3:02 pm By Rabbi Allen S. Maller

When Jews and Christians watch video of the Muslim Hajj from August 9 to August 14, plus the 3-day celebration of Eid al-Adha, very few of them will see the connection between Makka’s Hajj and Jerusalem’s three pilgrimage festivals, especially the eight day holiday of Sukkot/Shemine Ahtsreret. Read more

Hanah the Tzadekit—a Mother’s Day Model for Hassidic Jews and All Others

Last updated on: May 10, 2019 at 6:23 pm By Rabbi Allen S. Maller

On this Mother’s Day, men who have been blessed with a wonderful mother and/or wife should thank God and follow the Talmud’s advice: “Love your wife as you love yourself—and honor her even more”; and “Be careful to honor your wife: for blessing enters the home only because of your wife.” For many people, Hassidic Jews are noticeable because of their Amish-like dress and ultra-orthodox behavior. But it is their unique stress on trusting in God and elevating one’s soul... Read more

Terrorist Targets Mosque and Synagogue

Last updated on: April 30, 2019 at 8:19 pm By Rabbi Allen S. Maller

Everyone should be constantly reminded that religious extremism is ultimately self-destructive to both itself and its supporters. In the words of the poet W. B. Yeats: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold… The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Read more

“Shebrew” Is Not a Typo in This Purim Story

Last updated on: March 18, 2019 at 5:28 pm By Jan Zauzmer

Swapping the gender of well-known characters can shed light on imbalances in the treatment of men and women. For Purim, reframing even a story helmed by a heroine allows us to unmask stereotypes on a holiday filled with masks. Read more

Haman For Jews and Muslims—Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Racism

Last updated on: March 18, 2019 at 4:54 pm By Rabbi Allen S. Maller

Haman, the xenophobic central villain of the Jewish holiday of Purim (March 21 this year) appears in the Qur’an too. Today, many political leaders and want-to-be leaders are modern-day Hamans. Read more

The Moral, Prophetic Case for Mueller

Last updated on: December 4, 2018 at 5:17 pm By Guest Contributor

The mandate of Special Counsel Robert Mueller echoes a story of political authority and an independent figure who calls it to account: King David, Bathsheba, Uriah and Nathan the prophet. Through this lens, we see safeguarding Mueller’s ability to do his job is not an ordinary political matter, but a moral imperative. Read more

Chanukah — Moving From Lesser Jihad to Greater Jihad

Last updated on: March 18, 2019 at 4:56 pm By Rabbi Allen S. Maller

The historical development of the Jewish holiday of Chanukah is a good illustration of how religious leaders can promote a “greater jihad” (spiritual) focus over a “lesser jihad” (militant) focus. Read more

Following Pittsburgh, a Sea Change

Last updated on: November 15, 2018 at 7:20 pm By Guest Contributor

For the first time, I almost couldn’t find a prayer book. That is how many people came to my synagogue for the first Shabbat after the shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue. I knew something was different the instant I walked inside the wooden-walled, linoleum-floored, home-like little multipurpose room that houses the Beis Community (“beis” means “home” and is here a pun on the English “base”), a liberal-Orthodox synagogue and hub especially frequented by millennials in Washington Heights, New York City. More people came than usual — and they came on time. Everything about that Shabbat was intensified. Read more

Local Rabbis Defend Palestinian Candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar

Last updated on: March 18, 2019 at 4:57 pm By Rabbi Allen S. Maller

Rabbis in San Diego, California, have denounced attacks by a Republican opponent against a local candidate for congress with Palestinian ancestry. Republican Duncan Hunter has called his Democratic challenger Ammar Campa-Najjar a “national security risk,” and accused him of being an "Islamist." Read more