Shammai Engelmayer, at The Blogs

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Oct 1, 2021, 1:10 AM

Shedding ‘light’ on the Torah’s tales

This Shabbat, we begin the annual cycle of readings from the book the comedian Bill Maher refers to as “the Jewish book of fairy tales,” an opinion shared by too many Jews. After all, that “book” begins with the biggest fairy tale of them all—Genesis...

Sep 18, 2021, 12:26 AM

9/11: A horribly harsh lesson not learned

At around 1:30 p.m. Australia time on September 11, 2001, meaning around 10:30 p.m. on September 10th here on the East Coast—Australia is 14 hours ahead of us—former President Bill Clinton addressed a question about Osama bin Laden at a luncheon with a group of...

Aug 19, 2021, 7:39 PM

Vaccine mandates— the time is now

All Republicans should be shot—the unvaccinated ones, that is. So should everyone of whatever political or religious persuasion who is as yet unvaccinated, and especially the adamant anti-vaxxers, including a sizeable contingent of ritually rigid Jews. I prefer having them shot with either the Pfizer...

Aug 6, 2021, 12:06 AM

Food for High Holy Days thought

The month of Elul begins on Sunday evening. That means that this is the time we should re-examine our lives in order to prepare ourselves for the Ten Days of Repentance from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur. Those days are when we need to finalize...

Jul 23, 2021, 6:24 PM

Why the Democrats must get on the teshuvah train

The end of Tishah B’Av last Sunday evening marked the beginning of the seven-week period that will come to an end as Labor Day 2021 morphs, toward evening, into Rosh Hashanah 5782. The time has come to begin preparing to do teshuvah, meaning to take...

Jul 8, 2021, 7:06 PM

The Tishah B’Av conundrum

This week, with the start of Shabbat, the Three Weeks enter the final Nine Days leading to Tishah B’Av, the most difficult, most mournful day on the Jewish calendar. Sadly, it is also a mostly neglected observance among the overwhelming majority of Jews, certainly here...

Jun 26, 2021, 12:26 AM

July 4th—a secular Tishah B’Av?

July 4th falls out a week from Sunday. On our calendar, it is the 24th of Tammuz, the start of the second of the mournful Three Weeks that lead up to Tishah B’Av, memorializing one of the most tragic days in all of Jewish history....

Jun 10, 2021, 6:59 PM

A tragic truth revealed on Facebook

There is a segment of the Jewish world that either does not understand what God’s Torah is all about, or does not want to understand. This was highlighted by a Facebook posting over the Memorial Day weekend that gathered much support. Particularly revealing of this...

May 28, 2021, 7:27 PM

Hamas is winning and we should care

When the New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says, as she did last week in a tweet, that Israel is responsible for “the death, displacement and disenfranchisement of millions,” she is making it crystal clear that she considers Israel to be an illegitimate nation and...

May 14, 2021, 7:54 PM

This Shavuot, study our ‘constitution’

Shavuot is upon us. On Sunday evening, Jews the world over will gather together to study Torah — all night long for the hearty ones among us. On Monday, we will read Exodus 19 and 20 — the chapters that begin with God appointing Israel...

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About Me

Shammai Engelmayer is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth Israel of the Palisades. He hosts adult Jewish education classes twice each week on Zoom, and his weekly “Keep the Faith” podcast may be heard on Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, and Stitcher, among other sites. Information on his classes and podcast is available at www.shammai.org.