Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay Introduction This short posting on what the Jewish tradition has to say about Thanksgiving will strike some as surprising — so a word of background might be helpful. Traditional Jews do not celebrate holidays of another religion and have always shied away from even nominally secular holidays that are…
Photo from Pixabay By the 6th century CE, Christianity was a religion of empire that produced significant codices of imperial law, many of which regulated Jewish practice. Even so, however, Christian polemics against Jewish “legalism” and the perceived burden of the Mosaic-Pharisaic law were commonplace. According to foundational Christian writings, Jesus’s death on the cross…
Image by Darko Stojanovic from Pixabay The question of the “right” to fair, universal and comprehensive healthcare has been circulating for quite a while, but rapid expansion of modern medical technology has transformed the question from a periodic issue into a perennial one. Controlling rising costs, determining priorities, and ensuring fair distribution and access to…
Photo by jessica45 on Pixabay This is the final installment of a three-part essay, offering a radical proposal for how ethical prosecutors ought to approach sentencing recommendations for non-violent criminal offenders, given the often dangerous and abusive conditions that exist in many American prisons. This perspective is informed by Jewish law’s complex history and jurisprudence…
Photo by jessica45 on Pixabay This is the second part of a three-part essay offering a radical proposal for how ethical prosecutors ought to approach sentencing recommendations for non-violent criminal offenders given the often dangerous and abusive conditions that exist in many American prisons. This perspective is informed by Jewish law’s complex history and jurisprudence…
Photo by jessica45 on Pixabay This is the first part of a three-part essay offering a radical proposal for how ethical prosecutors ought to approach sentencing recommendations for non-violent criminal offenders given the often dangerous and abusive conditions that exist in many American prisons. This perspective is informed by Jewish law’s complex history and jurisprudence…
Abstract by mahtabahamad on Flickr (CCO) This is the third installment of a three-part series of essays that discuss the Jewish tradition’s answer to repairing the soul in the midst of wrongdoing, guilt, and shame. The first part used the biblical story of King David to illustrate the importance of taking ownership of one’s wrongdoing,…
Abstract by mahtabahamad on Flickr (CC0) This is the second of a three-part series of essays that discuss the Jewish tradition’s answer to repairing the soul in the midst of wrongdoing, guilt, and shame. The first part used the biblical story of King David to illustrate the importance of taking ownership of one’s wrongdoing, though…
Abstract by mahtabahamad on Flickr (CCO) This is the first of a three-part series of essays that discuss the Jewish tradition’s answer to repairing the soul in the midst of wrongdoing, guilt, and shame. This first part uses the biblical story of King David to illustrate the importance of taking ownership of one’s wrongdoing; guilt…
“Blossoming of Magnolia Flowers in Spring Time” by Kaboompics.com on Pexels (CCO) In Israeli society, Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) and traditional Arabs live within close proximity to one another. While these religiously, ethnically, and culturally differentiated groups do not typically interact with each other, women from both groups appear to share certain aspects of their lifestyles.…