It is true that there is no specific ancient Jewish wisdom on how The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind effectively ended the era of black-and-white movies when they were released in 1939. But the Torah does teach the permanent principles of color. It even teaches why different colors impact us in different …
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 …
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 …
“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 …
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, …
While serving the synagogue it was my privilege to establish in Southern California, my wife and I frequently sailed our forty-four foot cutter to Catalina Island. On that 26 mile jaunt, we often saw dolphins, whales, and other beguiling sea life. When fog set in, I’d think of Florence Chadwick, who in 1952 set out …
It is well known that very few of the young men who perpetrate unspeakable brutality and hideous destruction on the streets of America were raised by one mother and one father married to each other. It is rare for such an outlaw to have grown up with both a mother and a father dedicated to …
The other day, I overheard Susan reading a much-beloved children’s book to a young grandson. Over the years, between reading to our own children and now to the next generation, she has probably read this book and many others hundreds of times. With each reading, she gains pleasure from affirming a relationship with the child …
When a country’s population forgets the idea of, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” and replaces it with the ideas of, “I’m entitled” and “I have a right to..” it shouldn’t be a shock to see that nation deteriorate. This deterioration takes place on …
Over the past year, many businesses have been forced to switch directions in order to survive. Restaurant owners stopped prioritizing friendly and competent wait staff in favor of finding efficient web technology and delivery drivers. As more locations required masks, skin care and eye makeup took precedence over lipstick, causing cosmetic companies to revamp their …
