Featured in Articles

• The Two Traveling Benjamins
• Modern Day Philosophers
• Accidental Talmudist On The Road To Uman 2017
• The Thief And The Pomegranate Seed
• Louis Armstrong Wore A Star Of David
• I’m Salvador, And I’m A Complicated Jew
• I Saw My Grandmother’s Soul Leave Her Body
• A Jewish Journal Cover Story: The Accidental Talmudist

Most Recent

• December 15, 2016August 23, 2019 Christmas In Jerusalem With My Beautiful Mom

  Good Shabbos! Ten years ago today, I toured the Old City of Jerusalem on Christmas Day with Mom. My film “When Do We Eat?” was playing in the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, and Mom seized the chance to visit Israel with me – something we’d never done together.

• December 15, 2016July 25, 2023 Even Napoleon Could See The Temple Would Be Rebuilt

  “Why are those Jews crying?”

• December 12, 2016August 23, 2019 My Soul Is Not A Thing – It’s A Channel

  The night I experienced the reality of my soul.

• December 9, 2016January 16, 2020 The Thief And The Pomegranate Seed

  Before his hanging, the thief made an offer.

• December 9, 2016January 16, 2020 Hanukkah in Germany, 1931

  Directly across from the Posner home stood the Nazi headquarters. With the eight lights of the menorah glowing brightly in her window, Rabbi Posner’s wife, Rachel, snapped a photo of it and captured the Nazi flag in the background. 

   

• December 8, 2016January 16, 2020 The Tiny Torah in Space

  As the Chief Rabbi of Holland died, he pressed a Torah scroll, no taller than four and a half inches, firmly into Joachim Joseph’s hand, commanding him to keep it and always tell its story. 

• December 7, 2016January 16, 2020 THE JEWISH BASEBALL HERO

  Fifty years ago, Sandy Koufax became a hero to American Jews by refusing to pitch in the World Series on Yom Kippur. 

• December 7, 2016February 20, 2023 Louis Armstrong Wore A Star Of David

  Louis Armstrong, the famous Jazz musician, wore a Star of David throughout most of his adult life.  

• December 5, 2016August 23, 2019 The 10th Commandment, Tony Kushner, And Me

  The Ten Commandments prohibit murder with just two words, while the prohibition on coveting includes fifteen. The no-coveting rule is the 10th Commandment – the climax of God’s revelation at Sinai. Why?

• December 5, 2016August 23, 2019 I’m Salvador, And I’m A Complicated Jew

  I was recently asked, “Sal, what kind of Jew are you?” It was not a rhetorical question.

• December 5, 2016August 23, 2019 Getting High In The Holiest Place on Earth

  Israel in general, and Jerusalem in particular, is a tangibly holy place. During my recent journey, I connected with its spiritual energy everywhere I went, and I was changed by it.

• December 5, 2016August 23, 2019 I Saw My Grandmother’s Soul Leave Her Body

  I know the soul exists. Perhaps that’s not a big claim given how often people talk about souls. Despite all that attention, however, it remains difficult to know what the soul is, and how it affects our lives.