Countless people will soon be observing a Passover Seder. There are many important aspects to running an effective Seder, but perhaps the most important and the least known is that the Seder, meaning order, is an arrangement of fifteen indispensable steps from start to finish. In order to explain this to you, I must first explain the...
Whatever side of the political divide you occupy in the United States, life seems scarier, crazier and less predictable than it did, even just five or ten years ago. At the same time, for most of us, what impacts our personal lives on a daily basis matters most to us. I may be very concerned...
Sleep, not hibernate. What happens if you extract a little blood from a hibernating ground squirrel, preserve it till the summer and inject it into another squirrel? That active little mammal with his bushy tail will instantly go into hibernation. We don’t clearly understand if cold weather sets off the chemical changes in squirrel blood...
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...
Why do so many women make such bad mistakes about men? Some date purposelessly, often wasting far too much time on a man who will never marry them. They devote themselves endlessly to men who as boyfriends make them miserable, and who as husbands would make them even unhappier. Ever confident of their ability to...
Some Republican politicians shock me when they make statements like these. “My tax plan will benefit the working class.” “We must show how much we care for the poor.” “It’s not only the rich who’ll benefit…” “We don’t have to worry about the upper class.” “Crime is concentrated among the lower class.” By adopting the...
Almost everyone can tell when a synagogue or a church is in the final stages of decline. The impending extinction is usually caused by changing neighborhood demographics or sometimes by a leadership crisis but the signs are always conspicuous. Diminished attendance; few young women, a sad-looking facility showing signs of neglect. A roof needing repair,...
Have you ever wondered why Snow White met seven dwarfs? Not six, not eight— exactly seven. Why do we speak of Seven Wonders of the World—perhaps there should be nine? Marilyn Monroe even starred in The Seven Year Itch. Have you ever wondered why England celebrated Queen Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne on the fiftieth...
More than a quarter million Bangladeshis were killed by a typhoon in November 1970. Horrifying! But wait, twice that number of Americans were killed by an influenza virus in 1918. In the summer of 1995 excessive heat killed over 700 Americans while in the same year severe cold or hypothermia killed more than 2,000. I...
It’s hardly surprising that increasing numbers of women loathe men and detest masculinity. After all, most of their experiences with men have been only with cads, scoundrels, rogues and rakes. They have been exploited by clowns, abused by creeps, corrupted by crooks and debased by cranks. Only a diminishing minority of women have enjoyed the...
