Blog
While political unrest permeates the Middle East, fiscal unrest occupies Americans at home. Libertarians and Tea Partiers echo Ronald Reagan that government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem. Opponents contend that government plays an important role in maintaining the nation’s general wellbeing. How do we find some perspective? Torah provides guidance. Last week’s portion, Ki…
Read More >>What goes around comes around. Recently, several European leaders declared multiculturalism a failure. Europeans, who once avidly condemned America’s racial and religious shortcomings, have encountered their own challenges involving large Muslim minorities from North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. French President Nikolas Sarkozy declared on February 10, “If you come to France, you…
Read More >>The king is dead, long live… Who? Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, who held the presidency for thirty years, has stepped down. The army has taken command, at least temporarily. Egyptians find themselves free. Well, that’s the theory. The reality is anyone’s guess. Omar Suleiman, Mubarak’s former security chief and vice president, expressed doubt that the revolution…
Read More >>Earlier this week, I did a ten-minute stand-up comedy set at San Francisco’s Purple Onion. It was open-mic night for the San Francisco Comedy College. I’d taken their five-week beginner class as part of the research for a novel I’ve just begun. My guests laughed. The rest of the crowd—a whole lot younger—did, too. Thank…
Read More >>On January 22, six world powers (U.S., France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain) attempting to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons ended their latest attempt at negotiations. Once again, they failed. We can applaud such diplomatic efforts, but I wonder if our government and others really expect the Iranians to respond. Consider these items: •…
Read More >>You have to open your mouth pretty wide to put your foot in it, but it can be done. The last week offered ample demonstration. Sarah Palin, denying that conservative rhetoric led to the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona), condemned liberals’ “blood libel.” This medieval fantasy accused Jews of killing Christians for their blood.…
Read More >>Bad news. The San Francisco Giants won’t repeat their World Series triumph in 2011. Then again, no other team will take their crown. Why? The world will end on May 21. So says Harold Camping of Family Worldwide Radio, a Christian ministry based in Oakland. Camping’s sure. He made computations based on Genesis 7 and…
Read More >>A friend disagreed with my post of 12-3-10, “Snow Globes and Islam’s Civil War.” I wrote that Islamists hate us not because of what we do—although American foreign policy has often been misguided and not infrequently brutal—but because of who we are. (I expressed extremely rare agreement with former President George W. Bush.) The January…
Read More >>The Mishnah (Oral Torah), edited around 220 CE by Rabbi Judah HaNasi (Judah the Prince), offers wisdom from Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah: Im ein kemach, ein Torah / Im ein Torah, ein kemach (Avot 3:17). Without bread (literally flour) there is no Torah and without Torah, there is no bread. Hungry people trying to survive…
Read More >>This week, the Torah cycle forwards to the Book of Exodus or Shemot (Names). It falls on Christmas this year, so Christians’ equation of the birth of Moses with that of Jesus may be particularly strong. But the timing is coincidental. The lunar-based Jewish calendar floats within the secular year. Thus Jewish holidays always seem…
Read More >>