Where is all this leading? It was hard enough to imagine Madonna being caught up in Kaballah. Of course, before her fame, she was a pre-Madonna, but now, she has acquired the Hebrew name Esther and has visited Kaballah centers here in Israel. Honestly, in your most active imagination, did you ever think that Madonna [...]
Filed under Uncategorized Posted on March 31st 2011
Dear Helen Thomas, In biblical days, a person would see unusual marks on his or her skin, and the Torah instructed that person to go to the Kohain to see what the problem was. Now, the Kohain was a spiritual leader, a teacher, a mentor for all souls who came to him for guidance and [...]
Filed under Uncategorized Posted on March 31st 2011
This Shabbat, we enter the 3rd of the Five Books of Moses. It is a book of the Torah which contains precious little narrative and hardly any interesting stories. Instead we find a heavy concentration, at least in the beginning, of laws related to various kinds of sacrifices offered in the Sanctuary, and later in [...]
Filed under Dvar Torah Posted on March 11th 2011
It was 1:00 in the afternoon this past Monday, and the crowd I expected was nowhere in sight. Was this a mistake? I had in my calendar that at 1:00, there would be a special gathering at the tent of the family of Gilad Shalit, abducted and incarcerated by Hamas for 1716 days. I got [...]
Filed under Uncategorized Posted on March 11th 2011
What do you call women who pray as a group on Rosh Chodesh at the Kotel? It depends who you ask. Some would say a Shanda. I would say a Kiddush Hashem. Can’t be much farther apart than that. Over the years, I can’t say I’ve been particularly attuned to WOTW (Women of the Wall), [...]
Filed under Uncategorized Posted on March 4th 2011
Not too many Rabbis have a picture with Jesse Jackson. It’s one of the most controversial pictures that hung on the wall of my Rabbi’s study in Baltimore, eliciting comments from the trivial to the critical to the unprintable. I have that picture posted on my website in the photo gallery at elanadler.com/photo gallery It [...]
Filed under Uncategorized Posted on March 3rd 2011