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When Your Faith Meets My Tax Dollars

Can you defend a religious institution’s right to make a decision you find objectionable? I certainly have . And I suspect that if you take religious freedom seriously, sooner or later you will have to do the same. Religious communities need substantial authority to choose their clergy and those entrusted with teaching their faith. That means a defending their authority in certain matters even when I disagree with its religious teachings or find the consequences of those teachings painful. Religious freedom cannot depend on whether the government, or the public, approves of a particular religious conviction. But a case before the United States Supreme Court earlier this week raises a different question. What happens when a religious institution wants to participate in a publicly funded program, but objects on religious grounds to the conditions attached to that funding? The case comes from Colorado, which provides eligible children with fifteen hours of publicly funded preschool eac...
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Circumcision: Is It Still Necessary?

When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God commanded him to do something extraordinary. He was to circumcise himself, and every male member of his household, as a sign of the covenant between God and the Jewish people. Ninety-nine years old! Most people that age are trying to avoid unnecessary medical procedures. Abraham voluntarily underwent one because God commanded it. And according to our rabbis, the opening words of this week's Torah portion, VaYera , are directly connected to that event. The Torah tells us, VaYera eilav Adonai - "And God appeared to him." Why did God appear to Abraham? Rashi, citing the Talmud, explains that Abraham was recovering from his circumcision, and God came to visit him on the third day of his recovery. This, our rabbis teach, is one of the sources for the mitzvah of bikkur cholim , visiting the sick. Later in this same Torah portion, Abraham and Sarah are blessed with the birth of Isaac. And the Torah tells us that when Isaac...
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Before I Help You, Admit I Was Right

When did empathy become controversial? First, let’s make sure we share an understanding of what empathy means.   Here are definitions from the Merriam Webster, and Cambridge English dictionaries: 1. the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another . 2. the ability to share someone else's feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person's situation . I would have thought that understanding and being sensitive to another’s suffering was something most Americans could support. We might disagree about what to do about that suffering. But surely recognizing it was a good place to begin. Apparently, even that has become complicated. An Axios article this week reported on a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute examining Americans’ attitudes toward empathy. It found substantial differences among religious and political groups, with white e...
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They Came to Watch Baseball: What They Got Instead Is Worth Talking About.

Do you remember watching television with your parents or grandparents when a commercial came on that suddenly made everyone uncomfortable. And everyone hoped the commercial would end before the youngest person in the room asked a question or your mother passed out from embarrassment. I suspect many of us have such a memory.   I certainly do.   Actually, I have a lot of them.   So what made those moments uncomfortable? Usually, it was some boundary had been crossed: a boundary of good taste, modesty, or what was (assumed) appropriate for people of different ages and levels of maturity watching together. We thought there were certain understandings about such things. Until, apparently, there weren’t. Earlier this week, I read about a controversy over advertisements appearing during baseball’s postseason playoffs. One features actress Sydney Sweeney wearing revealing underwear while promoting the sports betting platform Novig. Another features actress Megan Fox in a red ...
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From Yankee Stadium to the Garden of Eden

Wednesday night’s playoff game was not only a bitter loss for the Yankees and millions of fans everywhere, but an unexpected source of sermonic ideas that deal with living the kind of life we prayed to achieve on the High Holidays. In the sixth inning, Anthony Volpe hit what initially appeared to be a two-run home run that would have tied the game. Yankee Stadium erupted. Unfortunately, a fan reached over the outfield wall and interfered with the ball. After reviewing the play, the officials determined that it would have remained in the ballpark. The home run became a double. One run scored instead of two. The Yankees eventually lost, 4–3, and their season was over. Now for Yankees fans, there was plenty to be unhappy about. But what interested me most was manager Aaron Boone’s response afterward. “I thought they got it right.” This is not the sentence you generally expect from someone whose season has just ended. Usually, this is an excellent opportunity to question the umpires’ e...
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We Do Not Endorse Political Candidates. But We Wholeheartedly and 100% Endorse Voting

I pride myself on writing an original Shabbat message to our synagogue family and community each week. But occasionally I come across a message from our broader Jewish community that I believe is important to share. This is one of those weeks. It is about our responsibility to vote in the upcoming elections. As a matter of federal law, and synagogue policy, the JCCP/CBT does not endorse political candidates. But we wholeheartedly and 100% endorse voting. I hope you will read the following message from our Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, encouraging every eligible member of our community to vote. *         *         *         On Tuesday, November 3, 2026, New Jerseyans will cast ballots in federal, county, municipal, school board, and other local elections. Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey encourages every eligible member of our community to make their vo...
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Not Perfect. Still Remarkable. The Abraham Accords Six Years Later

Six years ago this month, something remarkable happened in the Middle East. On September 15, 2020, representatives of Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain gathered at the White House to sign what became known as the Abraham Accords. A few months later, Morocco joined the process, as did Sudan. For the first time in a quarter century, Arab nations were establishing formal relations with the State of Israel. At the time, I wrote to our congregation about what an extraordinary development this was. I wrote about it again a year later. And now six years have passed. The anniversary deserves to be acknowledged and celebrated.   Not because everything has gone according to plan. Quite the contrary. Think of what these agreements have been required to survive. October 7 th , and the terrible war that followed. The enormous suffering and political turmoil throughout the region. The deterioration of Israel's relations with much of the international community. War involving Iran an...
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