JVO Blog

With God In The Elevator

Posted on 09/08/2019 by Rivkah Lambert Adler in Holidays

Many years ago, I was living in suburban Baltimore with my family. An old friend had made aliyah about five years before. She and her husband were looking for a new apartment and had found something they...

Seeking God – and Losing Him

Posted on 09/05/2019 by Jacob Schwartz in Beliefs and Practices

B”SD ״ובקשתם משם את ה אלוקיך ומצאת כי תדרשנו בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך״ – דברים ד כט “From there you will seek God, your God, and you will find Him - if you seek Him with all your heart and with all...

Dr. Seuss Questions

Posted on 09/01/2019 by Marcia Goldlist in Holidays

Dr. Seuss asks children if they rather be a cat or a dog. My question is if you would rather pray in a brand new synagogue or an ancient one? The new one is modern and airy, probably with lots of light. The...

Racism, Ethiopian Jewry, and the Red Sea Diving Resort

Posted on 09/01/2019 by Moshe Daniel Levine in Beliefs and Practices

The critics are correct. Netflix’s new movie The Red Sea Diving Resort about the covert Israeli mission to rescue thousands of Jewish Ethiopian refugees is predictable, generic, and all around much less...

A Blessing of Appreciation upon “Surviving”

Posted on 09/01/2019 by Rabbi Yaakov Bieler in Beliefs and Practices

The Talmud (Berachot 54b) states that based upon four extremely dangerous situations listed in Psalms 107, any individual who has experienced an overt, life-threatening situation and survived, should give...

Crying Out To God

Posted on 08/27/2019 by Marcia Goldlist in Beliefs and Practices

My five-year-old grandson stayed overnight with me recently. He woke up in the night wanting his mommy and daddy. I am sure that this summer there were lots of children staying over at grandparents, or in...

"When Elul Comes Calling" OR "How To Do Elul"

Posted on 08/26/2019 by Rivkah Lambert Adler in Holidays

There’s a Jewish saying that’s especially suitable for this time of year. In the 19th century, Rebbe Nachman, founder of Breslov Chassidut, taught: “If you believe that you can destroy,...

“To Preserve, Perform and Fulfill” – Writing Your Living Torah

Posted on 08/18/2019 by Jacob Schwartz in Beliefs and Practices

BS”D “To Preserve, Perform and Fulfill” – Writing Your Living Torah Not all of us consider ourselves writers, but at countless times in our lives, all of us write. Sometimes we write...

A Somber Re-Watching of Don't Mess with the Zohan - and Why Israel Advocacy is Failing

Posted on 08/18/2019 by Moshe Daniel Levine in Beliefs and Practices

There is a long list of reasons as to why Don't Mess With The Zohan probably wouldn’t have been made in 2019. The ubiquity of politically incorrect humor, replete with racial and gender stereotypes...

Dancing in a Circle

Posted on 08/18/2019 by Marcia Goldlist in Beliefs and Practices

In the summer there tends to be a lot of weddings. And at Jewish weddings there is often at least one traditional hora or Jewish circle dance. Circle dances are the oldest form of dance, and I don’t mean...

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