Question: I have a friend in his mid 50’s who has come to Christianity in the last 12 years, He has a hard time resolving how God treated certain people groups in the Five Books of Moses and the Prophets Bible that were destroyed or killed by God’s command. I have tried talking to him...
A few years ago, my husband and I answered an ‘Ask the Rabbi’ question about whether deciding not to have children was acceptable. I was struck by the many reader comments we received that were variations of, “Better not to have children if you can’t be a good parent.”
Question:Why would only men go up to Jerusalem? – Nancy B. Answer: Dear Nancy, You are referring to the obligation of Jewish men to go up to Jerusalem on the three major holidays; Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles (Exodus 23:17, Deut. 16:16). As you can see from the opening of the book of Samuel, women often accompanied...
In late 1964, after five years of construction, the Verrazano Bridge connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island opened to traffic. It was made of steel and was then the longest suspension bridge in the world. In order to prevent corrosion from the sea air, it is painted, using about 12,000 gallons of paint. Since rust would...
As a chef, I have a question pertaining to the traditional Passover meal. The traditional Seder dinner typically includes gefilte fish, matzo ball soup, brisket or roast chicken, potato kugel and carrot and prune tzimmes. Now, we know that none of these foods originated in ancient Israel – they’re from a later period in Jewish...
Sam was an unhappy truck driver. He called my radio show from the cab of his 18-wheeler while hauling twenty tons of airplane parts across the Sierra Nevada. Some family history had recently emerged suggesting that Sam was at risk of Huntington’s disease. He was devastated. I spoke to him off the air for a...
While Susan is taking a few weeks break from writing new Susan’s Musings posts, we are pleased to bring you one of her past favorites (originally published in 2010). Enjoy! On the day after Thanksgiving 2008, a fisherman in East Texas’ Lake, Sam Rayburn, pulled in an 8 lb bass. Inside it, he found a...
“All in a hot and copper sky,The bloody sun, at noon,Right up above the mast did stand,No bigger than the moon.” English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge penned these lines in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. They foreshadow the curse on the ancient mariner after he has killed the albatross. The copper sky as a...
I have just discovered that the yearly flu vaccine contains a pork product used to stabilize the vaccine. I am Messianic and follow Torah. Is there any other alternative flu vaccine? Shalom,Paul S. Dear Paul, Thanks for writing. Regardless of background, everybody is impacted by what they eat. There is an entire industry based on...
Two of the most common misperceptions about Judaism are that kosher food means food that has been blessed by a rabbi and that Judaism does not believe in an afterlife. One of the reasons so many Jews mistakenly assume that their faith ignores existence after death is because the Hebrew Bible, known as the TaNaCH,...
