Inspiration 1711 articles

“Kaddish” is a powerful little prayer. My totally assimilated, anti-religious grandfather had no male relatives, but his non-observant son-in-law (my dad), took the obligation on when the time came and it...

WRITTEN IN MEMORY OF DORIS LEVINE, SALHA BAT ELIYAHU My father’s second wife, Doris Levine, passed away this morning. She was eighty-nine years young. Although she entered my life after I...

If the internet and urban-legends had been around when I was a kid, the thing I would’ve researched was the story about Rashi’s daughters. Did they really wear tefillin and how...

There are three things that people can leave at the kotel. They can leave their fingerprints, if they touch the wall. They can leave small notes, if they care to write...

My earliest childhood memory of the synagogue on Yom Kippur was being told to leave. “Go outside now and play,” my parents and grandparents instructed me. “Children aren’t allowed to be...

They called it the “old synagogue”, and they called him the “old rav”, and he did so many things in the “old fashioned” way, that we completely lost our patience. So...

To the Exalted One, Creator of All Things, Rebono Shel Olam; I am sending You my yearly E-Mail (Elokim Mail) to report on the state of Your people as perceived from...

Sharone was my teacher that summer. She came to us along with three other bright young women from seminaries in Israel to hone their teaching skills in Jewish Atlanta. Their foray...

These seven weeks between Tisha B’av and Rosh Hashana offer sweet sounds of consolation and comfort, reminding us that the best is yet to come. In the haftorah, Yeshayahu offers a...

Two years ago, in the midst of the deepening global financial crisis, Andrew Neff – a leading Wall Street equity analyst at Bear Stearns – was directly affected when his company...