“We allege ourselves to be seekers of truth and knowledge, yet… we have strayed from the path of sound reasoning and openness to evidence, and we have led others astray.” It may be the day after, but Yom Kippur is really an everyday event for the wise. “We are naturally Read more…
How is it that despite the occupations, expulsions, ghettoizations, blood libels and holocausts directed at Jews … from atheist to theist, from secular to ultra-religious, how is it that we continue to survive as a Jewish people? Amos Oz and his daughter Fania Oz-Salzberger (both secular Jews) know the answer Read more…
No matter how many times you read a Jewish written book (or translation, thereof) – however correctly or incorrectly (more likely) – and no matter how much you believe in and worship a Jewish-written failed messiah, you are not somehow magically Jewish for this. Judaism has never worked this way, Read more…
To those who condemn homosexuals and transvestites as sinners against “God,” your condemnation is *NOT* based in “the Hebrew Bible” but only in your religion’s theology! As one who teaches Torah, I can assure you of this. And I’ll start with addressing homosexuality first. The go-to Torah law of proof Read more…
The question raised: “If we want to remain observant, why should we study something that will call into question the basis of our observance?” The answer in a question: Does it even matter if the stories of Torah are myths written down at different historical times and weaved together into Read more…
Someone born not a Jew, but desires to be a Jew, becomes a Jew when he or she fully embraces the history, language, and fate of the Jewish people as his or her own and when a legitimate Jewish community, whether religious or secular or somewhere in between, accepts him Read more…