• Making Sure Judaism is Fair

    One of the tenets of Morethodoxy as I see it is finding as many and as wide a range of opportunities as possible within halacha for all Jews to engage in Judaism and connect to God.   In the case of women this means finding greater room for women’s leadership, women’s learning, women’s expression, and women’s…

  • Defining Morethodoxy (a re-posting of an earlier essay)

    Morethodoxy.  One more label to add to an already thinly divided Jewish world? In subtitling our blog “Exploring the Breadth, Depth and Passion of Orthodox Judaism,” I think we aim to overcome the limitations that labels impose.  To see Jewish life not as it often is seen today as a linear spectrum from insular to…

  • What does one need to be a Jewish leader?

    Is talking to God a prerequisite for being a Jewish leader?   If so Adam would have been the first Jewish leader; but he was not.  Is being a tzadik, a righteous person a prerequisite for Jewish leadership?  If so Noah would have been first Jewish leader; but he was not.  It is Abraham in our…

  • Tweaking the Jewish Image of Relationships

    I recently went to hear Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski speak of the respect the Torah demands in relationships.  He quoted the Talmud, which says, “a man must love his wife as himself and respect her more than himself.”   He spoke of the fact that the Talmud forbids rape within marriage, something the western world only…

  • Why are we so Childish when it Comes to Yom Kippur?

    Yom Kippur will arrive this week and thousands of Jews will attend synagogues.  Why is it that so many attend synagogue on Yom Kippur, but not the rest of the year?  What is it about Yom Kippur that draws us?  No doubt because it is a holy day, we want to be present.  But many…

  • For Crying out Loud!

    In a few days, on the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, many of us will fulfill the once a year commandment of hearing the sound of the Shofar.  The mitzvah of the Shofar, as reflected in the blessing we make upon it, is not to blow the shofar, but to hear its sound. There are primarily…

  • The Highest and the Lowest

    The Rambam writes in the Laws of Tishuvah (return) about this season before the holidays that, “All people should see themselves as half guilty and half meritorious, if they do one sin now they tip themselves and the entire world with them to the side of guilt and cause destruction, if they do one mitzvah…

  • Tishuvah-Return

    We call the process of repentance tishuvah or “return”.   This is very telling.  The process we engage in during this Jewish month of Elul and through Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot is not a process of becoming someone we are not, but rather a more organic process of getting in touch with who we really are…

  • Prostitutes, Rabbis and Teshuvah (Return)

    The Talmud tells two stories of Rabbis visiting prostitutes and subsequently doing Tehsuvah (return, repentance).  A comparison of the two stories yields deep insights about our own work of Tishuvah at this time of the year.   A good and inspiring Month of Ellul to all. Story #1 (Babylonian Talmud, Minachot 44a) Once a man,…

  • A Profound Disagreement on How to Live Jewish Lives

    The Mishna in Berachot (53b) states: “With regard to one who ate a meal and forgot to say the bircat hamazon (grace after meals), Bais Shamai says they must return to their place and say the grace, Bais Hillel says they should say grace in the place they are when they remember.” The Talmud on this Mishna…

  • Takes Many Spiritual Tools to Connect to an Infinite God

    On Prayer and Meditation My first post on Morethodoxy, entitled “Openness and Passion,” outlined what I perceive to be an important process in living the Torah, being able to adopt the strengths one finds in each community and in the so many different approaches to mitzvoth and Torah, even if they are not our own…

  • Were our Avot Perfect? (part 1)

    Often we limit the Torah.   We project onto it our own ideas and feel it can not defend itself or be of value as it is.  We fashion seatbelts for Torah that ultimately detract from it.  We limit Torah by projecting onto it what we think we already understand, what we think it should…

  • Did Abraham Fail his Final Test?

    Over Rosh Hashanah I thought a lot about the akedah, the binding of Isaac, since the story is so central to Rosh Hashanah.  I contemplated some of the central questions that are asked out it. What gave Abraham the right to offer his child with out asking Sara since Isaac is her child also, as…

  • The Importance and Value of Creativity in Talmud Study

    I and my family are living in Israel for the next 5 months on sabbatical.  Though we are living in Jerusalem I commute each day to the city of Lod to learn torah in the kollel of Rabbi Israel Samet.  It is a small group of mostly young married men who have finished their army…

  • Torah Alone does not Make a Mench

    A congregant of mine was confounded by the reports of Rabbis who were arrested for illegally trafficking in human organs. One person in the group said that some might justify their acts claiming the money would be used for yeshivahs and other important Jewish organizations. They turned to me and demanded to know if there…

  • The Central Temple Service of Yom Kippur

    This month of Elul leads up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  It is a time of reflection and tishuvah, return, but with what should we emerge from this process?   Elul, Rosh Hashanah, the 10 Days of Tishuvah and Yom Kippur culminates in a service performed once a year on Yom Kippur itself, on the…

  • A King Who Does Not Know Joseph: Lessons on Jewish Loyalty and Persecution

    In the preceding Torah portions we have seen Joseph exercise his power with great loyalty on behalf of Pharaoh and Egypt.  He not only saves everyone from famine, but in the process makes Pharaoh even richer by using the stored grain to bring all agricultural land under the ownership of Pharaoh and render all of…

  • Yom Kippur

    Two Goats that Teach the Central Lesson of Yom Kippur In ancient times Yom Kippur was quite a different experience than it is for us today.  The entire Jewish people would gather at the Temple in Jerusalem to watch and listen as the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, performed the Temple service, and on this…

  • Rosh Hashanah

    The Talmud states:  “We anoint kings next to a spring of water so that their kingship should continue to give forth like a spring…Rabbi Ammi said, “If one is about to engage in business and wishes to know whether he will succeed or not, let him get a rooster and feed it; if it grows…

  • How Each Generation Contributes to the Rebuilding

    The Talmud says, “ Any generation for which the Temple is not rebuilt, it is as if it was destroyed in their days.” The Sefat Emet, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger, asks how this could be so?  There have been many generations in which there were very righteous people, is the Talmud saying that…