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When it comes to questions of religious observance, I am a live-and-let-live liberal. This attitude sometimes brings me into conflict with hard-liners. Some of them are Orthodox religionists and some are part of the “secular orthodoxy” — secular Jews who are intolerant of any approach to religious practice other than their own. The second category …

I’ve been really confused about what the Bush administration is up to. Like when President Bush nominated his personal lawyer for the Supreme Court, I thought it might be further evidence of how out of touch he is. Either he truly didn’t comprehend how bad it would look, or–however deranged this might seem given his …

Call me perverse (and you’re probably right), but I’m sitting here feeling nostalgic for the fifties, thanks to George Clooney’s new film about pioneering TV reporter Edward R. Murrow, Good Night, and Good Luck. If you haven’t already seen it, I urge you to see it now. Here are some of the things that induced …

Here’s the good news and the bad news in a single sentence: Yesterday, UNESCO member states have a “Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions” and they did it over the strongest possible objections by the U.S. government. The U.S. State Department called on National Endowment for the Arts Chair …

Last week, amidst the news of earthquakes, storms and governmental misdeeds, I sat around the dinner table with half a dozen friends, having “the conversation”–you know the one I mean. These conscientious, thoughtful people contribute a great deal of time and resources to heal the earth and create more just societies. But on this evening, …

The High Holy Days are an exciting time for me. As I consider the year gone by and the year to come, I feel a rising sense of possibility. In our tradition, on Rosh HaShanah, the first day of the new year, names are inscribed in the book of life; on Yom Kippur, one’s \t’shuvah\, …

It’s official: Friday’s \New York Times\ lead editorial said President Bush’s Thursday anti-terrorism speech to the National Endowment for Democracy “suggested an avoidance of today’s reality that seemed downright frightening.” There is irony here, of course: Bush’s speech was an act of rhetorical terrorism, designed to scare all of us deeply enough to place our …

I’m in Seattle visiting with friends for the High Holy Days. When I lived here a few years ago, I was deeply involved in a spiritual community that had suffered a deep loss, then spiralled into conflict. I had heard that recently, healing was becoming evident. So part of my reason to visit was this: …

The time of the new year is drawing close: Rosh HaShanah begins Monday evening. The process of preparation tests us. For the whole previous month, we dive into the river of time, poking under rocks and peering into dark places, making our soul inventory. Our missteps and misdeeds float to the surface, demanding to be …