JVO Blog

High Holy Days: On Communal Teshuva

Posted on 09/08/2018 by Rabbi Ben Hecht in Holidays

Teshuva -- roughly translated into English as ‘repentance’ but actually involving much, much more -- is fundamental to Jewish thought and life. It is, actually, the very engine of all Jewish...

The Call of Introspection

Posted on 07/16/2018 by Rabbi Ben Hecht in Holidays

As the Three Weeks began, I found myself thinking about the movie “The Gladiator” with Russel Crowe. It is, clearly, a film that presents a motif of good versus evil and we are to feel, in a...

#MeToo and the Pursuit of Modesty

Posted on 04/09/2018 by Rabbi Ben Hecht in Beliefs and Practices

There can be no denying the significance of the #MeToo movement. It has confronted, and continues to confront, a major problem within our society and, for this, it deserves acknowledgment. What I find somewhat...

The Often Overlooked Message of Purim

Posted on 02/27/2018 by Rabbi Ben Hecht in Holidays

In many ways, the story of Purim epitomizes the battle of good versus evil. The lines are clearly drawn and we know for whom we should cheer and for whom we should not. That is why its celebration is so...

The Uphill Battle of Teaching Orthodox Judaism

Posted on 01/30/2018 by Rabbi Ben Hecht in Beliefs and Practices

I read with great interest the JVO blog posting from Moshe Daniel Levine entitled The Uphill Battle of Teaching Liberal Judaism and found myself agreeing with many of his points. In many ways, I found him...

Chanukah – The Holiday of Judaism's Oral Law

Posted on 12/19/2017 by Rabbi Ben Hecht in Holidays

Of all the holidays celebrated by the Jewish People over the millennia, the only one that is not mentioned in the Tanach [the Jewish Bible] is the holiday of Chanukah. While there are different books entitled...

How Not To Do Teshuva

Posted on 09/24/2017 by Rabbi Ben Hecht in Holidays

Maimonides, in his presentation of the Laws of Repentance (Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Teshuva 1:1) states that the actual mitzvah of teshuva, in requesting forgiveness from God, consists of four parts:1)...

National Despair

Posted on 07/27/2017 by Rabbi Ben Hecht in Holidays

During these Three Weeks which we are presently experiencing on the Jewish calendar, we are not just marking the historical destruction of our Temples in Jerusalem which threw us into the tragedies of the...

The Uniqueness of Jewish Nationhood

Posted on 05/01/2017 by Rabbi Ben Hecht in Israel

As we celebrate Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel Independence Day, it is a proper time to reflect upon the basic nature of our Jewish national identity. The questions actually abound...as do the myriad of answers...

The Jewish Revelation

Posted on 02/14/2017 by Rabbi Ben Hecht in Beliefs and Practices

This Shabbat, in synagogues around the world, we will read Parshat Yitro which contains the account of the Revelation at Sinai. When we think of this overwhelming historical event, we may wonder, though: what...

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