Rabbi's Musings

In the second installment of The Hunger Games trilogy, there’s a moment when main character Katniss Everdeen’s mentor Haymitch gives her a piece of advice before she enters the arena to fight for her life: 
You just remember who the enemy is. That’s all.

Katniss is a participant in the Hunger Games, in which different “tributes” are forced to fight one another to the death on camera, for the...Read more...

Imagine if Harry Potter’s parents weren’t murdered by Voldemort. Imagine if there were no trauma that began the whole seven-novel story. Harry would be a normal student at Hogwarts. He would presumably be happy. There would be no story but no tragedy either. 

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if Israel, born in 1948, had never needed to fight for her survival since day one, actually even before she declared herself a...Read more...

Some people used to say, “The measure of someone is the size of the thing it takes to get his or her goat.” What do you think? Do you know what it means to get his goat? It refers to the sensitivity of racehorses. According to one historian, racehorses are infamously high-strung. Horse trainers learned many years ago that highly sensitive animals like a stall mate, and a goat is one of the most suitable companions for a racehorse. In...Read more...

“It’s an old man dancing like a chicken and singing,” said the teenage girl, laughing uncontrollably as she watched a video in her bedroom. Her father, a professor named Arthur Brooks, poked his head into her room to see what was going on.

In a second, he figured it out. She was watching rock star Mick Jagger, who turned 81 this year, singing The Rolling Stones’ hit “(I Can’t Get No)...Read more...

It’s getting warmer, so I’m about to get back on my road bike. Actually, there's a newer word emerging among serious bicyclists. It's stravacide, and the "cide" suffix has the same meaning as it does in words like homicide (death caused by a human), suicide (death caused by oneself), fratricide (death caused by a brother), pesticide (death caused to a pest) and the like. The suffix cide means "the act of killing." Therefore strava-cide is...Read more...

I am a collector of corporate slogans. In a few words we can learn so much about a particular organization or at least how it likes to think of itself. For instance,

"All the news that's fit to print" -- the New York Times

"Think different" -- Apple Computer

"The happiest place on earth" -- Disneyland.

My personal favorite is (unofficial) Google's: "Don't be evil!"

Why such a slogan for an Internet...Read more...

Chanukah begins soon and the night certainly feels dark. Can we celebrate Chanukah during this horrific war? Where is the miracle of the light? Too much death and suffering. And yet it is precisely when the night is darkest — short days and small moon — when we need a season of light and hope. We can hope that, as the prophet says this week in our portion, God will prevail not by might, not by power, but by spirit. Of course, these days...Read more...

As I write this, I am sitting in the same hotel on a rainy Monday morning in Jerusalem, at a table — actually the same table — where I sat having breakfast in November 2000 during the beginning of the Second Intifada. Fears of terror then. Fears of terror now. Has nothing changed? Back then, the promise of peace with the Palestinian people — so close — had been snatched away by the Palestinian leadership and the failure for peace...Read more...

One fact that is not to be challenged in the current war is this: Hamas uses children to shield their missiles while Israel uses missiles to protect their children. Some say the situation in the Middle East is quite complicated but on one level I disagree. It is quite simple to diagnose – although not simple to solve. Simply put, a lot of people want to kill Jews in Israel, and if Israel does not act smarter than them, it might just...Read more...

The late Karl Menninger made this charge:

If people are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered – love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.  Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.  Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you...Read more...

Friends, these past few days have been a nightmare come true as we watch in horror the events in Israel. It was comforting to have so many gather on Sunday night in solidarity, and as I write this, I am preparing to travel to Houston for a city-wide gathering. This Friday night, we will continue to recite prayers of hope even as we desire news of Israel’s successful efforts to regain its peace and security.

There are many...Read more...

The holiday of Sukkot comes this week to remind us that, despite life's fragility, we should rejoice in our blessings. This holiday is not only about intellectually grasping this concept. We are to construct a booth and, in so doing, physically be reminded of the paradox of enjoying transitory blessings. (Many years ago, in Miami I had to take down my sukkah because of Hurricane Wilma; talk about learning the lesson of life's...Read more...

I shared a version of this with the congregation last year. The version below is to be printed in this week’s Jewish Herald Voice. Still timely, I believe. Shanah tovah!
 
Two-Sides of God
 
Once a couple of years ago I was running late for the airport and, even though it was before 7:30 in the morning, roof repair was being done on my neighbor’s house. One of the drivers had parked in a way that blocked the...Read more...

There's a story about Stephen S. Wise, the great social activist of last century, when he once visited China some years before the Second World War.  The only means of transportation in that country then was by rickshaw, and the rickshaws were pulled by old, weak, frail people, who would cough constantly as they dragged their burden.  At first, Rabbi Wise was horrified.  He felt uncomfortable that his transportation should be...Read more...

The Man of La Mancha is the story of Don Quixote.  The play features a waitress and prostitute named Aldonza.  When Don Quixote sees her, he refuses to treat her as a prostitute.  Instead, he calls her "my Lady."  He actually gives her a new name, Dulcinea.  Even after she is raped, and Don Quixote finds her hysterical and disheveled, he says compassionately, "My Lady, Dulcinea, Oh, my Lady, my Lady."

"Don't...Read more...