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Sharona Margolin Halickman

May 3, 2018, 11:10 PM

Social Action originated in the Torah

In Parshat Behar, we see that activism dates back to the days of the Torah. During the Shmita (Sabbatical) year we are taught to have compassion for those who have less as ideally all of the fields should be...

Mar 21, 2018, 7:21 AM

Remy Ilona’s Poem in Honor of Jerusalem

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the fair city surrounded by hills, by hills surrounded As the Lord of hosts surrounds His people, His people enclose Nestled up in the Judaean hills, oh Land of Judah Scorched by the sun, and swept by the winds of...

Jan 31, 2018, 12:14 PM

I'm not feeling inspired. But neither was the tree. I'm giving a talk tonight, but I'm not feeling rooted, or even grounded. How am I to spread my branches and give off fruit, if I don't feel connected to my...

Jan 5, 2018, 10:10 PM

18 terrible secrets hiding in your closet

Each year, billions of new garments are made and millions of tons of textiles are discarded. This unrestrained overproduction and overconsumption impact our planet considerably. Exceedingly resource intensive, the garment industry is one of the largest polluters in the world. This already...

Dec 24, 2017, 3:06 PM

The essence of Judaism and religion — Orthodox (faith) or Orthoprax (good deeds)

There is an ancient debate in the Talmudic tradition concerning the question as to the essence of Judaism and religion – faith or good deeds. Rashi (the great commentator of the 11th century) cites a debate between two great Talmudic...

Dec 17, 2017, 7:21 PM

The verse ‘I am the Lord your God’

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his blog on the Torah reading of the week (Va’etchanan 5777), presents two arguments in the Jewish tradition regarding the opening verse of the “10 statements” (and the Biblical term is “10 statements” and not...

Dec 10, 2017, 4:17 PM

Heresy and moral atheism

Maimonides (the great legal scholar and philosopher of the 12th century) is the first and only thinker in the Jewish tradition to codify principles of faith within a legal framework as a binding theological dogma in codifying his “13...

Dec 3, 2017, 3:35 PM

The source of authority and sanctity of the Torah (the 5 Books of Moses) and Rava’s anti-theological conception

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel points out (God in Search of Man, P. 257-278), that there is a fundamental difference between the concepts of the Torah (the 5 books of Moses) being from Sinai and being Divinely revealed (and sacred). ...

Nov 26, 2017, 6:00 PM

The interpretation of texts contradicting orthodox dogma

In traditional rabbinic Judaism we as Jews live not by what is written in the Bible (the Written Torah) but by the Bible as interpreted and understood by the Jewish rabbinic tradition (the Oral Torah) - the foundation of...

Nov 19, 2017, 3:54 PM

Principles of belief are subject to differing interpretation

From an ideological point of view, the origins of an orthodox (correct belief) conception of Judaism began in the medieval period with the formulation and legal codification by Maimonides (the great legal scholar and philosopher of the 12th century)...

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