Posts Tagged: jeremy rosen judaism
The 2024 High Holidays: Should God Atone, Too?
We are approaching a period of atonement. And sometimes I wonder who should be atoning. It may sound blasphemous, but perhaps God should be atoning...
Why Do We Keep Kosher?
After dealing with the sacrificial system, and the roles that priests play within it, the Torah turns to the laws of kashrut. More specifically, the...
God Can’t Answer the Question of ‘Why’
Innocent worshipers were shot outside a synagogue in Israel. Children were mowed down intentionally at a bus stop in Jerusalem. Eleven people were shot in...
Judaism in a Divided Society
The culture wars are raging around us. Anything or any person who is unacceptable to the culture police on either side is to be banned,...
Why We Fast: To Learn the Dangers of Jewish Division
On the Seventeenth of Tammuz, we began the period known as the Three Weeks that culminate in the fast of the Ninth of Av (this...
My Problem with Religion
Marx was right. Religion is the opiate of the masses. And Freud was right too that religion is wish-fulfillment and satisfies the need for a...
Israel Should Work With China, Despite Its Government and Human Rights Abuses
For as long as I can recall, I have been an idealist. I have always tried my best to support the underdog, the oppressed, and...
Forget Saying ‘Sorry’ — Just Be Honest
You are walking down a crowded New York street minding your own business, careful to avoid bumping into anyone else. Then someone smashes into you....
Who Is a Jew?
Israelites, Hebrews, Jews, whatever you call them, have been scattered and settled all over the place for thousands of years. It has become quite fashionable...
Yuval Harari and Religion
I always enjoy reading books that challenge my preconceptions. Whether it was Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens, Pinker, or all the other atheists who hated religion,...
Remembering Carmel College
I have a childhood memory of a meeting in our London home at this time of the year, 70 years ago. My father, Kopul Rosen,...
Change the Omer?
Pesach is over and normal services have resumed. But what is “normal”? We are now in a period called “the Omer.” It is a time of...
Orthodox Jews and Art
Aesthetics plays an important part in the theological and philosophical tradition that started in Greece, and flowed right through the Christian intellectual world to the...
The Similar Stories of Eve and Cain
We have started the annual cycle of reading the Torah. Every year, I come to a familiar, beloved text, and invariably see something new. The Bible...
