Jewish Blogs

Anthony Castelow Also Taught Mitch Albom About Faith

Last night’s premiere of Mitch Albom’s “Have a Little Faith” was an emotional tribute to both Rabbi Albert Lewis and Pastor Henry Covington.It was great to see that so much of the film had been shot at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan’s largest congregation. Rabbi Harold Loss even made a small appearance in the background with Cantorial Soloist Neil ...

Should Rabbi Natan Tzvi Finkel Have Mattered More to Us?

I try to keep up with the current events of the worldwide Jewish community. I read all of the major Jewish newspapers (or at least their websites). Therefore, I knew when Rabbi Natan Tzvi Finkel died on November 8 in Jerusalem. And yet, I admit I had never heard of him before.Rabbi Finkel was born in Chicago, Illinois and was ...

Engaging in Kindness

In secular society, chesed (kindness) is considered a positive attribute but it is not something regulated or legislated. In Jewish tradition kindness is a significant value. In fact, the Chafetz Chaim wrote an entire book called Ahavat Chesed, in which he codified the numerous laws pertaining to this middah.The Gemara in Suka mentions that engaging in chesed is superior to charity in three ways. Charity ...

Is David Mamet Jewish?

Yes, David Mamet is a Jew. A Jew with lots of opinions about things.The JJ tells us that, “David Mamet is a Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony- and Oscar-nominated playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.” Mamet was born, says Wikipedia, “in 1947 in Chicago to Jewish parents, Lenore June (Silver), a teacher, and Bernard Morris Mamet, an attorney.”In his recent article ...

My First Car Wreck

I got the idea for this post from my friend Brainrants’ (who runs a super-funny blog over here) first run-in with a tree. -Btw, two links to the same blog in one sentence means check it out. You’ll like it.Back to the story though: I was in 1st year Bais Medrash in an “out-of-town” Yeshiva, and, as was is often the ...

Chanukah: Torah and Play Do Go Together

One of the more interesting and different stories related to Chanukah are those surrounding Dreidels. According to many traditional accounts, the Dreidel was used as ruse to cover up the studying of Torah when Greek soldiers would come upon groups of children with their teachers. Rather than observing Torah study, they would see a bunch of children playing with a ...

Mitch Albom’s Having a Very Jewish Year

Last month when I encouraged my friends to attend the Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame’s annual induction dinner I made certain to tell them that local Detroit sportswriter Mitch Albom was being inducted. I figured that would be a draw. I was surprised by the response that many of them had — “Mitch Albom’s Jewish?” they asked.Apparently they hadn’t ...

Crocheted Scalloped Bracelet Ornament

Here’s a sweet little crocheted scalloped ornament that I made for Chanukah, but that would really look great any time of year. For Chanukah I’ll be hanging ornaments from our dining room chandelier and hopefully making some mobiles and garlands with them too. You can always find a place to hang a little handmade touch to bring joy to your ...

Hanukkah Sale: 4 copies of God’s Favorite Prayers for the Price of 3

Buy 4 copies of God’s Favorite Prayers for the Price of 3To take advantage of this 4-for-3 promotion, follow these steps:Add 4 copies of God’s Favorite Prayers to your Amazon Shopping Cart.Proceed to checkout. When you’re done shopping on the Amazon site, click the “Proceed to checkout” button in the Shopping Cart. Your shopping cart should include at least 4 copies of God’s Favorite Prayers during ...

Menorah of the Week: Stick it in the Spokes of a Consumer Economy

Oy, Black Friday, Cyber Monday…sounds like extra Passover plagues, nu?I come from a long line of bargain hunters, but trampling each other at Wal-Mart might be an indicator that shopping has become a sickness in America.Yes, sitting at home today with a cocktail and clicking until the credit card charges prompt a phone call from a VISA customer service agent ...

I’m not frum enough for my own advertisers

Like almost every normal person out there, I find myself googling myself every now and then. The first 30 pages usually suck, but then it always starts to get interesting, comments on blogs and websites mentioning me as if I’m some authority on scandals in the orthodox community or pictures that have copied and pasted into sites advertising cleaning supplies ...

Kaddish for JFK on His Yahrzeit

It was bright and sunny in Washington on November 22, 1993, thirty years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I was attending an annual conference of over 7000 professors of religion and biblical studies in the capital city. What a shame, I thought, that at this conference there was no formal recognition of the anniversary of the death of ...