David J. Steiner

Apply for a Blog

Oct 25, 2015, 12:59 AM

Who is the wicked person who just attacked my fellow citizen with a knife?

Who is the wicked person who just attacked my fellow citizen with a knife? The simple son looks for a concrete answer and quotes Rambam, in reference to Torah (Exodus 21:14), “If a person willfully schemes to kill his neighbor...

Aug 3, 2014, 5:14 PM

The Role of a Jewish Mediator in a Time of War?

During times of war, individuals and their collective identities can often be at ends. Are Jewish mediators individuals first, members of the tribe, mediators, or do they act individually as Jewish mediators? This was the question on my mind...

Jul 13, 2014, 4:40 PM

These and these are the words of a living God

Our Rabbis taught: For two and a half years were Beth Shammai and Beth Hillel in dispute, the former asserting that it were better for man not to have been created than to have been created, and the latter...

Jul 11, 2014, 4:56 PM

Ten Ways to Debunk A Leftist (especially a Jewish one)

This should be as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. First of all, attack their character. Say something like, “you bleeding heart liberals are too innocent to understand the real world.” If this doesn’t work, Accuse them of treachery. Say...

Jul 10, 2014, 8:27 PM

What do we mean when we say, “Our boys?”

There is a story about young Eitan, the first child born on Kibbutz Mishmar Ha’emek near Megido. When Eitan was three, his mother brought him a new white shirt to wear on Shabbat. On the first Friday night that...

Jul 10, 2014, 6:14 AM

What do we mean when we say “Our boys?”

There is a story about young Eitan, the first child born on Kibbutz Mishmar Ha’emek near Megido. When Eitan was three, his mother brought him a new white shirt to wear on Shabbat. On the first Friday night that...

Jun 21, 2014, 5:45 PM

Those Three are on My Mind

Thinking about the three Israeli, yeshiva students who were recently kidnapped in the West bank, Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, 16, and the controversy surrounding the kidnapping, I am overwhelmed with dissonant and diverse thoughts...

May 13, 2014, 10:02 PM

Peace and Justice: Mutually Exclusive Values at the Core of our Stasis

Trending has become a focal point of our electronic interest. In the Jewish world, what’s trending now is the failure of the peace process. A recent past trend was the Pew report about Jews and Judaism. Regarding the peace...

May 12, 2014, 2:50 PM

We Need a New Word for Shalom Bayit When Families Have Two Homes

We need a new word in Hebrew for Shalom Bayit when families reconstruct themselves and live in two homes because sometimes marriage doesn’t work. In Tractate Kittubot (61a) we learn that Eve “was given to her husband to live...

Load more

About Me

David J. Steiner is a Jewish educator and a mediator in the Chicago area. To learn more about David, check out his mediation practice at www.geeshur.com.