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December


Vayeshev – Light One Candle

Keywords: 405; blind; bricks; candle; candle; dark; darkness; David Ben-Gurion; dirt; gifts; Golda Meir; Hanukah; hero; Hillel; holiness; homeless; lights; match; menorah; miracle; Moses; names; Nazarian; news; online; paper; paralyzed; quarter; radio; Santa Monica; sign; smile; sons; suffering; test; Theodor Herzl

November


October


Bereshit – Why We Left The Garden

Keywords: Anton Chekhov; Bertrand Russell; blunder; brokenness; chess; childhood; children; Chronicles; compassion; Eden; explore; folder; gratification; grown-up; healing; Jordan; Joshua; marshmallow; pain; Pythagoreans; suffering; Tree Of Knowledge; Tree Of Life; wilderness

Sukkot VI – Jerusalem: The U.N. Versus The Bible

Keywords: Ban Ki-moon; butter; Chelm; Estonia; France; Germany; history; Jerusalem; jokes; King David; Lithuania; Mohammed; Netherlands; Palestine; Poland; riddle; Sweden; toast; Temple Mount; UNESCO; United Kingdom; United Nations; United States; wall; Warsaw

Yom Kippur – A Letter To My Father

Keywords: Alexander Marks; ass; Ben Wolpe; books; Boston; boxer; brothers; Charleston; chess; childhood; cry; curse; Danny; dinner; elevator; father; granddaughter; Harrisburg; letter; Louis Finklestein; Louis Ginsberg; married; Paul; payphone; Philadelphia; Playboy; ran away; reading; Samara; serenity; Steve; stories; teacher; Vaudeville; wall; Widow's Walk

Kol Nidre – Lessons From 20 Years at Sinai

Keywords: Alexander Marks; archaeologist; beggar; celebration; change; clock; community; death; diversity; echo chamber; gossip; grief; Job; letter; lie; money; Persian; place; politics; preconceptions; retrospective; see; shiva; sing; sink; transcendence; two sides; zealotry

2nd Day of Rosh Hashanah – Judaism In The 21st Century

Keywords: Abraham; anti-Semitism; art; Azerbaijan; Bel Air; Berlin; community; conservative; culture; debates; diversity; Howard Lester; identity; immigrant; Irving Kristol; loneliness; love; Madonna; Mexico; Poland; sacred; Shakespeare; South Africa; strangers; Trump; Uganda; Zionism

1st Day of Rosh Hashanah – ISRAEL: TRUTH, LIES and LIFE

Keywords: Anthony Julius; anti-Semitism; Arab; beggar; Brown University; Canada; David Goldstien; David Irving; democracy; Denial; direction; Eliezer Ben-Yehuda; Gamal Abdel Nasser; gay pride; Harold Kushner; holocaust; homework; Jerusalem; lies; lost; lying; Mahmoud Abbas; Mark Twain; Mexico; Palestinians; poetry; Princess Diana; Psalm 153; Shimon Peres; students; supermarket; T.S. Elliot

Erev Rosh Hashanah – GROW

Keywords: 1913; angel; Charles S. Dutton; convert; David; deafness; decision; dinner; dream; English professor; gunshot; Jacob; jazz; Joseph; Kafka; Kirk Douglas; Kotzk Rebbi; Louis Armstrong; Menachem Mendel; Midian; Peter Davis; prison; Rabbi Mark Borovitz; reinvention; renewal; resurrection; Ruth; second chance; solitary confinement

September


Ki Teitzei – Is The Torah Capitalist?

Keywords: Adam Smith; business; capitalism; community; compassion; Deuteronomy; eggs; empathy; empathy; Espadrilles; exploitation; fold; George Gilder; marketplace; money; moral; ox; private property; Theory Of Moral Sentiments; Urban Outfitters; women's shoes

Shoftim – Wholehearted with God

Keywords: Abraham Joshua Heschel; Alexander Marx; angry; Bachya; Chofetz Chaim; complete; cynical; elevator; honest; humble; Louis Ginzberg; naive; Obligations Of The Heart; perfect; perfection; Rabbeinu Bachya ben Asher; secrets; self-examination; sincere; skeptical; soul; whole-hearted

August


Eikev – What’s in a name?

Keywords: Abraham; Ashkenazi; Avram; Bob Dylan; Cicero; Danny Kaye; Eddie Cantor; Edward G. Robinson; Esau; George Gershwin; Germany; Gershowitz; heel; Iran; Irving Berlin; Isaac; Jacob; Joey Bishop; Latin; Melvyn Douglas; Milton Berle; music; name; Napoleon Bonaparte; Nuremberg; Poland; Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki; Rashi; Rebecca; Rodney Dangerfield; Rome; rule; Russia; Samuel; Sarah; summer; Summertime; taxes; Tony Curtis; war; Zimmerman

Vaetchanan – Why We Need Knowledge When We Have Google

Keywords: Bush; Clinton; computer; encyclopedia; eye doctor; facts; Google; Head In The Clouds; information; Ivy League; knowledge; Lincoln; Moses; Obama; Presidents; Rashi; screen; search engine; survey; telegraph; telephone; train; Washington; Wikipedia; William Poundstone

Devarim – A Stranger Among Us

Keywords: Abraham; blind date; bus; car; Chicago; Elijah; Ellis Hill; flight; J date; jesters; Liz Willock; Maimonides; Munich; Olympics; on-line dating; papers; Philadelphia; Rabbi Baroka; Rabbi Jonathan Sacks; Rabbi Lawrence Kushner; Rio De Janero; secrets; stranger; taxi; tent; Uber

July


Pinchas – Three Rabbis on Zealotry
Rabbi David Wolpe, Rabbi Jason Fruithandler, & Rabbi Erez Sherman

Keywords: abolitionists; argue; campers; complexity; Eastern Europe; Eliezer Ben-Yehuda; fanatic; ice cream; kindness; leadership; Maccabees; passion; peacemaker; Pinchas; school; shootings; suffragettes; summer; suspicious; warrior; zealot; zealotry

Balak – Living Your Private Life In Public

Keywords: children; extrovert; Facebook; food; home; Huffington Post; information; Instagram; intimacy; introvert; Jacob; Jacob; Kanye West; Kim Kardashian; Maimonides; modesty; privacy; private; public; Quiet; Sherlock Holmes; strangers; Susan Cain; Taylor Swift; tents; The Guide For The Perplexed; Twitter; useless; Watson

Korach – A Week In Jerusalem

Keywords: Africa; Agoura; airplanes; Asian pivot; beggar; books; etrog; Hallel Yaffa Ariel; international; Israel; Jerusalem; Joseph Telushkin; Masada; Netanyahu; Newark, NJ; Sami Rohr; Tamar Elad-Appelbaum; tourists; wifi; Yehuda Amichai; Yehudah Mirsky; Yemenite healing juiceman

Sh’lach – Recapturing Our Childhood

Keywords: Bangladesh; Buchenwald; childhood; complain; conversion; Disneyland; Disneyworld; Eden; Elie Wiesel; Florida; Forward; freedom; heretic; innocence; Istanbul; lifecycle; Menachem Butler; Mickey Mouse; Minnie Mouse; New York; Orlando; paradise; Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook; reminders

June


Nasso – Power Corrupts; Powerlessness Ruins

Keywords: 10 Commandments; 12 tribes; adulteress; adults; barley; brute force; cheating; children; compassion; covet; funding; Great Britain; hatred; husband; idol; jealous; jealousy; Jerusalem; Jo Cox; Parliament; police; power; priest; proof; ritual; Robinson's Arch; secret; shaming; wife

May


April


Passover – Redemptions Big and Small

Keywords: 1926; Anders' Army; cake; Czechoslovakia; differences; Exodus; free; French; funeral; Habib Elghanian; Haji Aziz Elghanaian; Iraq; judgment; kings; love; Pesach; piano; Poland; prophets; refugee camp; Sam; shiva; Siberia; skiing; slaves; Solomon Cohen; Suzanna Cohen; Tehran; visionaries; Warsaw; wicked son

Metzora – “Pour Out Your Wrath”

Keywords: ancestors; anger; Brentwood; contemporary; Crusades; door; Elijah; fight; fury; Governor Brown; grievance; heat; historical; Jacob; Kotzker Rebbe; Lamentations; love; Menachem Mendel of Kotzk; Middle Ages; Passover; prison; Psalms; revenge; ritualize; Shlomo Carlebach; vengeance; warmth; women; wrath; Yom Kippur

Shmini – “How Judaism became Judaism.”

Keywords: Aaron; angel; authors; book prize; business; Chapter 11; crowns; Daniel Gordis; Deborah Lipstadt; decorations; finance; grass; grow; inquire; interpret; interpret; Jonathan Sarna; Joseph Telushkin; judging; lunch; markets; Menachem Butler; middle word; Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook; Rabbi Akiva ben Joseph; Rav Kook; silence; silent; stocks; surprised; The Archive Thief; translation; Zosa Szajkowski

March


February


Mishpatim – “Membership and Community”

Keywords: Alfred Whitehead, ashamed, Binyamin Lau, children, choice, community, destiny, fail, family, fate, gathering, Hanukkah, Hillel, hypocrite, Irving Greenberg, membership luncheon, Naomi, past, politician, politics, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, Russian, Ruth, support, villiage, Yitz Greenberg

January