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Oct 13, 2026, 10:31 AM

A list of the people you have lost

Every Jewish calendar I have used has a page most people never look at until they need it. It holds a short list: a name, a Hebrew date, sometimes a relationship. Father. Grandmother. A brother. It tells you when...

Boruch Itzkowitz

Oct 13, 2026, 12:02 AM

When Halakha Meets Headlines: The Toronto Burial Controversy and What It Reveals about Jewish Authority

The Toronto Beth Din's decision to restrict burial rites for Jews who die by medical assistance has ignited predictable outrage. Critics frame it as cruel, outdated, punitive. Supporters defend it as principled adherence to Jewish law. Both sides miss...

Ruthie Hollander

Oct 8, 2026, 11:15 PM

When God grieves: Ayeka, Eikha

I recently tried to explain the concept of a rhetorical question to my 4-year-old. “I know the answer to the question,” I told her. “I’m asking because I want you to think about it.” In Parashat Bereishit, mankind is asked...

Oct 8, 2026, 6:18 AM

Israel: Learning to Carry the Empty Chair

Photo Credits: Sabine Sterk ( AI)

There are many ways to describe loss, but I think one of the most painful is an empty chair. It is the chair at the family table that nobody sits in anymore. It is the place beside you in...

Oct 4, 2026, 3:56 AM

My first Yizkor was on Yom Kippur.

There was a heaviness built into it. I was fasting. It was Yom HaDin. I had spent days thinking about the fact that for the first time in my life, when everyone else walked out for Yizkor, I would...

Oct 1, 2026, 2:54 AM

A blessing of love: Recalled

A group of Kfar Aza evacuees gathered in a group hug for the Priestly Blessing (Oct. 19, 2023)

I raised my hands in the Priestly Blessing countless times, but I felt like a fraud. I didn't feel blessed myself, until a friend restored the love underneath it all

Allen S. Maller

Sep 26, 2026, 12:30 PM

Medical Assistance In Dying Is Not Suicide

Several years ago, Canada began a program called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). Now it is beginning to reshape how Canadians are facing end-of-life situations. An article published in The Atlantic in August of 2025 reports that 5% of all Canadian deaths in...

Sep 25, 2026, 12:21 AM

Yizkor with Rabbi Khalil and Cantor Lander

I used to live on 7th Avenue in Park Slope. I loved how close it was to Prospect Park. The main entrance was just around the corner at Grand Army Plaza. That’s where I started my morning runs and...

Sep 20, 2026, 4:57 PM

A Year of Firsts

I have no one to bless me this year. That thought had been stuck in my head since Rosh Hashanah. In my family, my father didn’t bless us every Friday night. Some families do. It wasn’t our minhag. But Erev Yom...

Sep 18, 2026, 1:10 AM

Walking in God’s Ways: Restoring Dignity to Aging

For over one thousand years, Jewish communities have repeated a powerful plea in our prayers leading up to and throughout Yom Kippur: Hear our voices, Shema koleinu… Do not cast us away in our old age; when our strength...

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