Unintended Consequences
No good deed goes unpunished. How many of us have used that phrase at one time or another? Sometimes it means that we secretly wanted…
A Bris and a Baptism
I’m not a fan of circumcision, though the bris milah is required for male Jewish children and is considered an essential component of Jewish identity.…
The Sacrifice of Isaac
A few years ago during Yom Kippur, the holiest holiday on the Jewish calendar, I was in a little wooden synagogue on the Lower East Side of New York City. The rabbi, a venerable man whose voice carried throughout the temple, was extremely charismatic. For the first time in my temple-going life, I found myself listening intently to the sermon.
The Bris
Eight days after birth, a Jewish male infant is circumcised in a ceremony called the bris milah (bris means “covenant” in Hebrew). It’s a party:…