When my husband and I visited Vienna several times in the 1990s, the gemeinde (official Jewish community) would not publish the schedule of services at the Progressive Congregation Or Chadasch in its communal newspaper or even allow the congregation to buy an

by Marc Rosenstein
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary)

Thus said the Lord: Again there shall be heard in this place, which you say is ruined, without man or beast - in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate

by Marc Rosenstein
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary)

Judges and officers [shotrim, the word used in modern Hebrew for police] shall you set up in the gates that the Lord your God shall give you for your tribes, and they shall judge

CNN has done an interesting bit on Arab Israelis serving in the IDF. It's particularly notable since the Reform Movement just adopted a resolution on Arab Israelis at the Union for Reform Judaism's 70th Biennial convention in Toronto ten days ago.

by Marc Rosenstein
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary)

If ...[one was walking] with a barrel ahead of one with a beam, and the barrel is broken by the beam, the one with the beam is responsible; and if the one with the barrel stopped

by Marc Rosenstein
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary)

Three times a year - on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the Feast of Weeks, and on the Feast of Booths - all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place that

by Marc Rosenstein
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary)

Blow the shofar on the new moon, on the full moon for our feast day, For it is a law for Israel, a ruling of the God of Jacob.
-Psalms 81:4-5

Shorashim is located on the west

You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I the Lord your God. -Leviticus 23:42-43

by Marc Rosenstein
(Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah)

Since its earliest days, Reform Judaism has asserted that a Judaism frozen in time is an heirloom, not a living fountain.