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To A Young Jew: Why Israel Matters

Dan Ornstein — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 03:56:08 +0000

Dear____________, Thank you for speaking with me concerning your personal struggles about Israel and Zionism. You could have dismissed me as a blind Jewish loyalist of an older generation who might try to shame you into silence about your very thoughtful criticisms. Instead, you took the chance to have a genuine conversation with me, with [...]

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After the trauma, sex

Dan Ornstein — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 00:00:07 +0000

With the summer upon us and the high holy days looming early on the horizon this year, I am already contemplating starting the Torah reading cycle again, particularly the early history of humanity found in Genesis. Genesis is unparalleled among ancient literary works for teasing out God’s stormy and difficult path from the lone Creator [...]

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The Spiritual Paradox Of Lightning

Dan Ornstein — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 12:08:51 +0000

I learned a few months ago not to mess with Israeli kids who grew up in the Mamlakhti-Dati (state religious school) system. I teach a course on Jewish prayer once a week to eighth graders at the local Jewish day school where I live. One day, the class and I were discussing the theologian, Abraham [...]

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The New Toeivah (Abomination)

Dan Ornstein — Fri, 24 May 2013 03:02:26 +0000

As reported in the American Jewish press over the past several months, Yeshiva University in New York is now conducting an internal investigation into two former rabbis and teachers at its boys’ high school who are accused of sexually abusing students over two decades. YU chancellor Dr. Norman Lamm acknowledged publicly in December that the [...]

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Teaching Children The Music Of The Soul

Dan Ornstein — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:57:12 +0000

Each year in May, my synagogue hosts a concert series for preschool, kindergarten and first grade students from across our area. Our local symphony orchestra and its beloved conductor, David Alan Miller, demonstrate their passion for classical music and their devotion to educating young people with a varied program of famous pieces that engage kids [...]

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What Really Happened At Sinai? Honestly, Why Should We Care?

Dan Ornstein — Sun, 12 May 2013 03:17:08 +0000

I assume that some readers may be puzzled or even mildly scandalized by the title of this essay. After all, what religious Jew – especially one who is a rabbi – would write such a cavalier and dismissive rhetorical question about the most important religious event in the history of the Jewish people, and perhaps [...]

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Making Marriage Work

Dan Ornstein — Sun, 05 May 2013 03:08:48 +0000

A family member of mine tells the following story about her Bible teacher, a religious Israeli woman who was on the staff of the Jewish day school she attended as a teenager. Angered by reports about the lack of fidelity among married couples in America, she one day lectured her class in Hebrew: “Kiddushin zeh [...]

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Sudoku, The Simpsons, Sefirah, and Servitude

Dan Ornstein — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 03:03:57 +0000

My wife is the math and statistics person in our house. She fills in the numbers of a Sudoku challenge with the joy of a word-drunk poet contemplating the lines of a puzzling sonnet. I am a “word guy.” I dissect the techniques and meanings of a poem with the exhilaration of a math whiz [...]

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Paying A Shivah Visit To The Richard Family

Dan Ornstein — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 02:18:34 +0000

Because it is one more way for people to gossip and to engage in verbal warfare under the cover of a laptop, I resisted joining Facebook for a long time. I had enough noise and prattling going on in my life, and I did not need to add social network media to that mess. When [...]

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What The Imam Taught Me

Dan Ornstein — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 03:19:42 +0000

Interfaith dialogue in America has become so de rigueur that at times it feels to me like a tired platitude. In a well-honed ritual slow-dance of tongues, we talk gingerly around the elephants in the room that are our differences, in order to celebrate what unites us. I have rabbinic colleagues who are on the [...]

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Hametz and my aliyah problem

Dan Ornstein — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 11:00:46 +0000

Last Tuesday, somewhere in Jerusalem, or Tel Aviv, or Haifa, or Beer Sheva, some lucky Israeli was consuming his second hamburger-on-a-bun of the day; or she was scooping up her hummus with freshly baked pita bread. On that same day, somewhere in Tiberias, the Negev, or the Golan, some lucky Israeli was quietly drinking a [...]

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I didn’t make the ‘Top Rabbis’ list…again

Dan Ornstein — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:06:31 +0000

Newsweek’s most recent list of the top fifty rabbis in America was published on March 21, and I wasn’t on it….again! The Jewish Daily Forward published its list of the thirty-six most inspiring rabbis in America a little over a week ago, and my name didn’t float to the top of the fame pool. Every [...]

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At The Seder: Giving A Voice To the Voiceless

Dan Ornstein — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 11:52:05 +0000

Each Passover season for the past twenty one years, the Jewish residents of our region’s group homes for developmentally disabled adults have been coming to our synagogue for a model Seder prior to the holiday. They enter limping, shuffling, leaning on walkers, holding onto aides who help them in the door, or sitting listlessly in [...]

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A mourner, a comforter, a lesson re-learned

Dan Ornstein — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 00:44:19 +0000

It was a Shabbat morning filled with simple blessings. The sun drenched the sanctuary of our synagogue with warmth and light, as people from throughout our community joined us for prayer and Torah study with Dr. Ron Wolfson. Ron is a renowned Jewish educator and researcher who is at the forefront of efforts to rethink [...]

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The “Torah” Of Springsteen

Dan Ornstein — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 01:09:08 +0000

I last saw Bruce Springsteen perform at the old Giants Stadium in New Jersey, several months before it was demolished in 2010. Over five nights, he committed himself and his tireless band to playing entire albums from his body of work, in tribute to that place which symbolized the greatness of his native state and [...]

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