I wouldn’t. Assuming the child in question is an adult, and depending on the degree to which the estrangement has festered, and barring cases of abuse, trying to heal such rifts is misplaced effort.
Why not? Moses was not such a bad spiritual leader of our people, and he was married to Tziporah the Midianite.
Before engaging an enemy in combat, we must offer to negotiate a peace (Deuteronomy 20:10).
Classical Jewish rulings concerning abortion rely primarily on the woman’s instinct, and they respect that until the fetus emerges from the womb, it remains an integral part of the woman’s body alone.
Fifty years ago, Sally Priesand was ordained as a Reform rabbi, the first woman clergy member in American Jewish history. To mark this anniversary, we asked rabbis, male and female, to reflect.
That’s how Abraham resolves his dispute with Lot over grazing lands: “If you head left, I’ll head right. If you head right, I’ll go left” (Genesis 13:9).
I don’t. It is not my place to nudge people to get or not to get vaccinated.
Everyone wants to be right—in the right way. What’s the line between striving for moral perfection and being a jerk?
Evil was introduced the moment God looked at Creation and “saw that it was good!” For the existence of good implies the existence of evil, just as big implies small and cold implies hot.
In 2018, as synagogues pondered livestreaming some services for the convenience of infirm relatives, we asked the rabbis to contemplate what was surely a distant, speculative future: “What role should virtual presence play in Jewish ritual and community?”
