11
Jan
Ask the Rabbis | What Jewish Wisdom Would You Offer Today’s Billionaires?
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By
Moment
Best to hold on to it so you can enjoy your bounty, but make sure you leave some for me.
07
Nov
Ask the Rabbis | How Would You Counsel a Parent and Child Who Are Estranged?
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By
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.
21
Sep
Ask the Rabbis | Can Jews Married to Non-Jews be Considered Spiritual Leaders in the Jewish Community?
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By
Why not? Moses was not such a bad spiritual leader of our people, and he was married to Tziporah the Midianite.
29
Jun
Ask the Rabbis | Does Jewish Law Offer Guidance on How to Fight a War?
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By
Before engaging an enemy in combat, we must offer to negotiate a peace (Deuteronomy 20:10).
24
Jun
From 2009 | Ask the Rabbis | When Does Life Begin?
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By
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.
28
Mar
Ask the Rabbis | How Is Judaism Different After Half a Century of Female Clergy?
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By
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.
31
Jan
Ask the Rabbis | Is Political Compromise a Jewish Virtue?
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By
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).
15
Nov
Ask the Rabbis | How Do You Deal With People in Your Community Who Don’t Want to Get Vaccinated?
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By
I don’t. It is not my place to nudge people to get or not to get vaccinated.
08
Sep
Ask the Rabbis | How Can We Avoid the Trap of Self-Righteousness?
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By
Everyone wants to be right—in the right way. What’s the line between striving for moral perfection and being a jerk?
09
Jun
Ask the Rabbis | Does Absolute Evil Exist, and If So, What Does It Look Like Today?
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By
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.
15
Mar
Ask the Rabbis | Post-Pandemic, What Elements of Virtual Judaism Will We Keep?
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By
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?”
12
Jan
Ask the Rabbis | Jewish Ethics and Electronic Surveillance
Some issues dominate the news; others drift along under the radar. This is literally true of electronic surveillance, a worldwide and quickly growing force that could profoundly change our lives.