12 May
Latest, Zoominars

The Intersection of Music and Prayer with David Broza and Amy E. Schwartz

To internationally renowned Israeli singer-songwriter David Broza, music is a platform for dialogue and tolerance. Themes of social justice and peace are embedded in his music and are integral to his humanitarian work. Now Broza, known for his dynamic guitar performances, has put his prodigious talents to work creating new music for the Shabbat service. He is in conversation with Moment books and opinion editor Amy E. Schwartz about his new album, Tefila—prayer in Hebrew—which reimagines the service with genres such as pop, jazz, gospel, folk and classical for a fresh and engaging Shabbat experience.

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14 May
Beshert, Latest

Beshert | Shabbat-a-Bing-Bada-Boom!

“Someday,” my boyfriend David said to me dreamily, “we’ll have Shabbat dinners at our house.”  “Yeah right,” I guffawed. “I guess you’ll have to marry someone else. I don’t do Shabbat.”  Sure, I was Jewish. I went to Jewish camp. And High Holiday services. But I was not an every-week-kind-of-Jew, and had no intention of becoming one. Ironically, my father was a cantor at a Reform synagogue in New York City.  But he was a professional baritone who happened to be the cantor, not a classically trained chazzan. Raised by socialist Russian parents who spoke Yiddish, he got the message—Cultural Judaism: Important. Ritual Judaism: Not so much. My mother, the daughter of assimilated German Jews, was fine with that. David, on the other hand, grew up the son of a German refugee whose family arrived in the United...

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13 Jul
Culture, Latest, Religion

Shabbat’s Gray Area

by Rebecca Borison Israeli President Shimon Peres recently announced that he has cancelled his trip to London for the Olympics’ opening ceremony. Why? When he discovered that the ceremony would be taking place on a Friday night, Peres, unable to find a hotel within walking distance of the Olympic grounds, decided to cancel the trip. For most of the Shabbat-observant—those of us whose daily work doesn’t have an imminent impact on world matters—taking a break from technology for 25 hours is more of a personal challenge than a matter of political import. But what about those for whom it is? What if resting on Shabbat impacts a country or even the world? What happens when a Shabbat-observer enters into the realm of politics? Judaism has a principle called pikuach nefesh, which means that in life-threatening situations, Jewish law can...

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10 Jul
Culture, Latest

The Three-Hour Diet

by Rebecca Borison Thanksgiving never really manages to excite me. Yes, it’s nice to be with family, but the whole feast aspect just isn’t that novel. I have that at least twice a week. It’s called Shabbat. Judaism is deeply rooted in its attachment to the culinary arts. We like to eat. A lot.  While many Americans enjoy a piece of chicken and some broccoli for their Friday dinner, we’re working our way through challah, chicken soup, brisket, mashed potatoes, squash and brownies. It’s no secret that food is an important aspect of our religion and culture. And sometimes this runs the risk of bolstering the “overeating epidemic.” It’s not easy to maintain healthy portions at the Shabbat table. And yet Judaism still provides some opportunity for healthy eating. Unfortunately, it has yet to be scientifically proven that kosher...

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31 May
Culture, Latest, Religion

The Plight of the Three-Day Holiday

by Rebecca Borison This past Friday, I turned off my iPhone at approximately 7 pm and prepared myself for three days of being disconnected. Shavuot happened to fall on Sunday and Monday, which meant that Shabbat led directly into the holiday, allowing no time to catch up on missed emails on Saturday night. While I am used to unplugging for one day a week, the three-day holiday always poses a greater challenge: It’s a lot harder to deal with three days of unplugging than one. But ultimately, I found the three days to be more beneficial than bothersome. I was able to catch up with high school friends, play basketball with my younger brother, go to synagogue, and even read some George Eliot. Granted, I don’t think I’d be able to do it every week, but once...

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30 Nov
Latest, Religion

Questioning the Merit of Faith

By Steven Philp Friday evening, nearly 3,000 people packed themselves in to the Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto, Canada to witness former-British Prime Minister Tony Blair and author Christopher Hitchens grapple with the merits of religion. The event was part of the Munk Debate series, organized by the Aurea Foundation, for which the prompt was simply: “Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world.” Blair–a recent convert to the Roman Catholic Church – was tasked with defending the necessity of faith communities, while Hitchens–author of the best-seller God is Not Great–argued that religion is the source of incalculable misery throughout human history. During the 90-minute debate, Hitchens seemed to hold sway over the crowd although a pre-debate poll showed 57% of the audience already agreed with his position, compared to the 22% who...

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16 Nov
Latest, Religion

Saving the World Through Rest

By Daniel Kieval Shabbat, the seventh day, the day of rest, is a strange concept to so many today. The long lists of prohibited actions seem to run counter to popular notions of individual choice and freedom, and the idea of temporarily disengaging from the continual "status updates" of society is viewed with a mix of astonishment and terror. We live in a world of activity. Industrialized humans spend just about all of their time either producing something or consuming something, whether it be products, information, or energy. Time and space are voids to be filled, rather than dimensions to inhabit. It would not be unreasonable to change our name from "human beings" to "human doings." Meanwhile, all of this "doing" is taking its toll—on our bodies, on our societies, and on our planet. The truth is, we...

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Pinchas
21 Jul
Latest, Misc

Weekly Parsha: Pinchas’ Zealotry and 600,000 Israelites

Last week's Torah parsha was Pinchas. (Numbers 25:10-30:1) Continuing from last week's parsha, Balak, Pinchas begins with the conclusion of the story of the plague of Baal-peor (Numbers 25). Balak ends with the men of Israel falling prey to their lustful appetites for non-Isralite women. They fornicate with them, marry them, and needless to say, Hashem is furious! He tells Moses to have the leaders impaled publicly, which leads to this Hollywood-esque finale (Numbers 25:6-9): Just as Moses finishes telling Hashem's orders to Israel's officials, the Israelite Zimri son of Salu brings his Midianite woman, Cozbi daughter of Zur, to a chamber in view of Moses and everyone else around. They proceed to copulate in what has to be one of the most disgustingly public, brazen, and defiant sexual acts in human history. We can imagine Moses and...

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