Category Archives: New

I’m excited to share the book I contributed to, Seven Days, Many Voices: Insights into the Biblical Story of Creation<https://www.ccarpress.org/shopping_product_detail.asp?pid=50388>, with you! This collection gives us a lens into a wide range of creative and inspiring thinking about Creation. Midrash, biblical criticism, literature, theology, climate justice, human rights, history, and science are just some of […]

          This week’s Torah portion, Vaetchanan, contains two very famous passages, the Shema and the Ten commandments. But this Parasha also includes Moses’ final request of God before he dies. As you know, even though Moses had led the Israelites from Egyptian bondage and through the desert for forty years, he […]

  The Bible is filled with quotes, someone once said. But of course, often what we think is a quote is in fact not. For instance, Sherlock Holmes never said “Elementary, my dear Watson.” Neither Ingrid Bergman nor anyone else in Casablanca says “Play it again, Sam”; Leo Durocher did not say “Nice guys finish […]

A wonderful Friday in Jaffa and the heart of old Tel Aviv. The view from our Tel Aviv Hotel We had a wonderful Yemenite Dinner tonight in classic old Tel Aviv and many of us walked back to the hotel. Tomorrow bright and early for our first full day!

I am here in Washington, D.C., with many members of the congregation and the wider Chicago Jewish community, attending the annual Global Forum of the American Jewish Committee. The 2500 attendees are here to learn from top scholars and politicians on matters of world justice and continued engagement in the State of Israel. Since the […]

  Chag Sameach! A Quick survey: How many people in the congregation regularly wear a wristwatch? {Ask for a show of hands of those who use another device to tell time and the youngsters will happily pull out their cell phones (be advised that you may lose them for a minute while they check their […]

“For you have known the heart of the stranger….” (Exodus 23:9) The picture above shows my mother, Regina Ohringer, mostly hidden by the man in the white suit in the middle. You can see on the right my Aunt Lottie. They were with their parents on the SS Flandre, a French ship that in May, […]

The Journey to a Better Tomorrow Begins Today A Message from Rabbi Edwin Goldberg November 9, 2016 This morning many of us in this country and congregation feel as though they are in mourning. I certainly feel that way. This is not because of Democrats or Republicans but because our country has been through a […]

Can we talk about things that annoy us? Every day brings us an array of stuff that tries our patience. You buy something that needs to be assembled, and the instructions don’t make sense. You’re out on a golf course and you hit a straight drive; but when you get to where it ought to […]