Question: For 10 months I have employed a 13 year old boy to do yard work. He is very bright, borrows my books which we discuss off work time. Unfortunately it has just been confirmed that over time when he uses the bathroom he has been stealing from me. When I started to suspect I...
A few days ago, we observed the 25th anniversary of the passing of my revered father, Rabbi A. H. Lapin, senior rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of South Africa, chief rabbi of the Gardens Synagogue founded in Cape Town in 1841, and founding rabbi of Congregation Am Echad, San Jose, California. But to me,...
In last week’s podcast I explained how skilled doctors get vicious murderers off with a simple assault plea. Well, three days after that podcast posted last weekend, the Chicago Tribune posted an article explaining how the murder rate was much higher than official figures suggested. Here are the relevant sentences:
My husband and I love hearing comments on all our posts, be they Thought Tools, Ask the Rabbi, or my Musings. This week’s Ask the Rabbi question focused on whether retirement meant something different to women and men. One response came from Claire, who started her comment with these words: Thank you for validating stay at...
Question: I have read and heard much of your teaching on the reasons for not retiring. I understand this for a man, however, as a woman who has worked full time in high stress employment most of my life but has never wanted anything except to be a traditional wife caring for my husband, children...
You do it. I do it. We all do it. We find ways to avoid doing those tasks in our lives that will really make a difference. They might be unpleasant, hard, boring, perhaps even frightening. Often, they are the very ones we have to identify and tackle. There’s the aspiring sales professional who does...
I was heartbroken, as indeed every decent person should be, at the murder of six Tennessee schoolchildren last week. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of heartbreaking news and this quickly disappeared off the national news headlines. This specific incident, though, haunted me. I was also angered at how little attention it received. Here are the...
FAIR — Allowing a significant proportion of the population to live off money earned by other people GREED—Wanting to keep my own money that I earned and use it as I choose COMPASSION—Politicians confiscating my money and giving it to chosen recipients in exchange for votes CHARITY—Me giving as much of my money as …
Rabbi Daniel Lapin’s Little Book of Definitions (I’m sure you have more!) Read More »
