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Allen S. Maller

Jul 24, 2026, 7:55 PM

Do Jews Really Worship Ezra?

Long before Daesh (Islamic State) began murdering thousands of woman and children in order to establish God’s right order in the world, Pope Gregory VII (r. 1073-1085) got the massacre ball rolling. Upon assuming the papacy in 1073, Pope...

Allen S. Maller

Jul 20, 2026, 5:09 AM

Gilgul Conversions Are Examples Of Kabbalah Miracles

A rather unusual form of evidence for reincarnation comes from the Jewish mystical tradition; the Kabbalah. Unlike Buddhism and Hinduism, Kabbalah does not teach that reincarnation (gilgul) occurs over the course of millions of years to millions of different...

Allen S. Maller

Jul 16, 2026, 11:10 PM

Gilgul Converts Returning To Judaism

A rather unusual form of evidence for reincarnation comes from the Jewish mystical tradition; the Kabbalah. Unlike Buddhism and Hinduism, Kabbalah does not teach that reincarnation (gilgul) occurs over the course of millions of years to millions of different...

Jul 14, 2026, 11:05 AM

Halakha’s Kármán Line: Imagined and Real Jews in Space

Ilan Ramon, November 2001, NASA, https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-107/images/high/KSC-02PP-0490.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ilan_Ramon,_NASA_photo_portrait_in_orange_suit.jpg, cropped

In the late 1960s or early 1970s, when Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof – the most prolific author of responsa in the American Reform movement – was asked for sources in Jewish law in preparation for “a discussion of the...

Jul 13, 2026, 1:16 PM

Reform Judaism must reject the DSA

For more than six decades, my Jewish home has been within Reform Judaism. I grew up in its youth movement and summer camps. I received my rabbinical education in its seminary. I have prayed and led worship in its...

Jul 11, 2026, 5:44 PM

Openness is Not the Absence of Conviction

Here's the irony. The very people defending Reform Judaism's commitment to openness sometimes seem uncomfortable when someone asks whether Reform Judaism itself still stands for anything. I think it does. In fact, I think it must. Because a movement that asks nothing of...

Jul 10, 2026, 8:36 AM

A Timely and Urgent Resource for Every Jewish Community

“The Case against Cremation and for Traditional Burial” A profound defense of Jewish tradition and the eternal sanctity of the human form In recent years, a troubling and deeply concerning trend has emerged: too many Jews are opting for cremation without...

Allen S. Maller

Jul 8, 2026, 11:33 AM

Becoming Jewish Is Like Falling In Love

The transition from not being Jewish to feeling and thinking Jewish is a gradual one. In Islam and Christianity God comes first. The proclamation that “Allah is God and Muhammad is his Prophet” makes a person a Muslim. Accepting...

Jul 7, 2026, 1:13 PM

Cosmic Moods: Reform Judaism Meets the Space Age

Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof in his younger years. American Jewish Archives. https://www.americanjewisharchives.org; https://press.huc.edu/pittsburgh-book-launch.
Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof, New Reform Responsa (Philadelphia: The Hebrew Union College Press, 1980), which included a responsum titled “Halacha and Space Travel.”

In 1970 – soon after the lunar landing – the most prolific respondent in American Reform Judaism and an expert on responsa literature, Rabbi Solomon Bennett Freehof (1892-1990), published an article in the Jewish Book Annual, titled “Recent Responsa...

Allen S. Maller

Jul 4, 2026, 10:23 PM

One Mahdi Plus 3 Messiahs VS Armageddon”s Super Hot Planet

Tens of millions of Americans sweltered under furnace-like temperatures as central and eastern American cities hunkered down for a heat wave. Over the last four years, more than 200,000 people have died in the E.U. due to extreme heat. Figures from France's...

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