Category: Science and Health

Voltaire famously stated that we are responsible for all the good we did not do. The great Enlightenment thinker understood that not doing bad is not enough for a stable and healthy society. A society at peace with itself must be one in which citizens are actively engaged in doing good. This need is present […]

Attempting to fuse Jewish and Black culinary traditions, a menu at a recent community seder included za’atar-seasoned salmon, parsnip-and-potato kugel, brussels sprouts and carrots dressed in tahini and, for dessert, a challah bread pudding. It was the inaugural “Soulful Seder,” organized by Challah and Soul co-founders Shonda Walkowitz and Judi Leib. Conceived in 2021 as […]

Reader: On the last day of Passover the rabbis teach we journeyed through the Sea of Reeds, we walked on dry land as the waters of the sea turned back upon Pharaoh and 600 of his “elite chariots … with officers on them all.” (Exodus 14:7) We withhold our joy in celebrating the death of […]

There’s a familiar story our society tells itself about the history of religion. It goes like this: Since the dawn of time, humans have held superstitious beliefs about a divine creator or a pantheon of gods who created and ruled the universe. These beliefs went mostly unchallenged for millennia, until just a few centuries ago […]

After the Seder, sometime around midnightwhen everyone has said the grace after meals, the singing begins. People break out tunes like, “Echad Mi Yodea (Who Knows One)” and “Let My People Go.” For years, comedian Daniel Lobell has sung a bluesy version of the song, “Chad Gadya,” about a kid goat who gets eaten by […]

I couldn’t help feeling a weird sense of guilt as I read Elly Katz’s new book, “From Scientist to Stroke Survivor: Life Redacted.” Elly has spent most of her life struggling with physical pain. In a piece we published in The Journal five years ago, she wrote: “I crafted this autobiographical sketch while braced in […]

The ruling regime in Iran continues its war-mongering policies—fueling the Gaza war to distract from domestic uprisings while supporting proxy forces like the Houthis and Hezbollah. At the same time, mass executions and environmental destruction persist across the country. Under these circumstances, the Iranian year 1404 (according to the solar calendar beginning March 21) will […]

  Freedom,  Beauty and Truth  – Comments before Passover (coinciding with Torah portion VaYikra) Passover is our holiday of freedom. Our tradition provides a wonderful insight on the nature of freedom through a play on words. We find this wordplay in the Talmud, based on Exodus 31:16.  That verse describes Moses coming down from Mt. […]

Rabbi Mordechai Lebhar, the rosh kollel at LINK in Pico-Robertson, understands that the term “rosh kollel” — leader of committed learners — may intimidate some Jews. But LINK, he said, is an outreach kollel. “It doesn’t matter if you are minimally observant, not observant at all or observant,” he said. “Everyone is welcome in the […]