The Blogs   >   Douglas Aronin

October 19, 2017
1:10 am

Spiritual Monotony: A Thought for Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

As the holiday-packed Hebrew month of Tishrei departs, we welcome the holiday-starved month of Cheshvan in its place. Cheshvan is the only month of the Jewish year......

 

September 8, 2017
6:44 am

The Greatest Challenge to Faith: An Elul Thought

The existence of natural disasters is the greatest challenge to monotheistic faith.   Human-created atrocities -- even those of almost unimaginable scale -- can be understood if not fully explained as an unavoidable adjunct......

 

August 20, 2017
8:24 am

Charlottesville and the Jewish Question

I thought I could do it, but I  was wrong.  I thought that I could ignore the flood of breaking news and continue with my previously planned post on an unrelated......

 

August 3, 2017
9:38 am

The principle of day school universality: Reacting to an interview

It wasn't the focus, but the incidental mention seemed to jump off the page at me.  It came in an interview of Allen Fagin, the Executive Vice President of the......

 

July 15, 2017
10:35 am

Parents v. Hospital: the Charlie Gard story

Every once in a while, what begins as a heartbreaking human interest story takes on a life of its own and forces the public to pay attention. Sometimes that......

 

July 7, 2017
6:05 am

Both sides of the Pond: A Reflection on Nascent Populism

If anyone still doubted that the recklessness displayed by the American electorate in 2016 by electing Donald Trump as President is not a uniquely American phenomenon, but rather part......

 

May 29, 2017
10:17 am

The Root of Redemption: A Thought for Shavuot

Why do we read the Book of Ruth on Shavuot? The most common explanation is that just as the Jewish people accepted the Torah at Sinai, Ruth accepted the......

 

April 27, 2017
7:04 am

“Every test is a final”: A reflection for Yom Ha’atzmaut

I was born in 1957, at the peak of the post-war baby boom. I have never known the world without a Jewish state. I was 10 in 1967, when......

 

April 7, 2017
10:58 am

Remembering the Exodus Every Day: A Pre-Pesach Reflection

One of the most puzzling passages in  the Haggadah is the statement of Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, which is taken from the Mishna in Berakhot (1:5).  Nestled between the story of......

 

March 28, 2017
6:28 am

Has the Revival of Hebrew Been a Success?

Other than its primary mission -- the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel --  modern Zionism has no prouder accomplishment than the revival of Hebrew as a......

 

March 9, 2017
6:06 am

Persia’s couriers: Purim’s silent heroes?

Whose name appears most often in the Megillah (Book of Esther)?  Your initial instinct (unless you've heard this before or figured that if it was that easy I wouldn't ask), was......

 

March 6, 2017
9:38 am

Dodging a bullet: thoughts on the election of new DNC chairman

"What we learn from history," my late father liked to say," is that we don't learn anything from history." I usually think of this adage as a bit too......

 

February 23, 2017
4:49 am

The Elephants and the Torah question: thoughts on the end of a circus

With so much happening in the world, it would have been easy to miss the announcement entirely.  It wasn't a complete shock, but it's taken a while for it to......

 

February 13, 2017
10:58 am

“To see ourselves as others see us”: thoughts on the British view of Trump

When a new Presidential administration continually outdoes itself in provoking justified outrage, when each day brings fresh evidence of both the moral obtuseness and the overbearing incompetence of the nation's elected leader,......

 

January 24, 2017
6:50 am

Memories and hopes: Thoughts on a yahrzeit and an inauguration

By a quirky calendrical coincidence, last Friday (January 20) was significant to me for two reasons.  It was the twenty-fourth yahrzeit of  my wife, Lisa Yudenfriend Aronin z"l. It was......