How can the saddest days of the year make someone happy?

This week’s parsha bears a striking echo to our current situation. It is the law of someone who got Tzaraat, a disease with physical symptoms of spiritual flaws that affected the person’s body, clothes, or even homes.

This year’s Passover seders will be smaller than ever, but they may prepare us for the biggest event in history.

We just finished reading the book of Exodus, and also the last of the special Torah readings before Passover. This reading, ‘the chapter of the NEW moon,’ begins with the mandate to declare the upcoming month of Nisan, as the first month in the Jewish calendar.

Chanukah may be over but its message is not. Especially with recent challenges to Jewish lives, we need to find experiences that bolster our determination to thrive, and our confidence in humanity.

The word ‘Fall’ has varied associations. To the world, it is a season. On the calendar, it is ‘fall back’ time. For Jews, it is the month after a slew of holidays.

This year, during the 49 day Omer count that takes us from Pesach to Shavuot, and from the Exodus to the Revelation at Sinai, I have been preoccupied with the movie, "The Mustang," which I saw twice and would be happy to see again.

Morah Yehudis shares her thoughts about the Poway tragedy from Wednesday night's Yom HaShoah service.

Maybe all you’re missing is inside of you...

"But how can you call a family ‘upright’ if they fight so much?" As we come to the end of the book of Genesis, we are struck by the friction within the first Jewish families.

‘Don’t let the lights….see your wallet.’ In the prayer recited after lighting, there is a phrase: ‘these candles are holy and we have no permission to use them.’

Rather extraordinary, I say to myself. Two very different personalities, Father Desbois and Stan Lee, take center stage of history on the very same calendar day!

Morah Yehudis reflects on "Oh My God," the recent Theater Or production at the Boulder JCC featuring Rabbi Marc Soloway playing God.

Post Rosh Hashanah may seem like a strange time to go to an off-beat movie. But after the fact, seeing Alpha did feel seasonally appropriate.

So much in life is about listening, and so much about listening is hearing the unspoken.

I recently saw his very favorably reviewed biopic, ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor.’ I loved the film and felt terrible at the same time.

Please join us in an all-night community gathering of a ‘Tikkun’! Leil Shavuot, this year focusing on the theme of feminine Torah at Har Hashem on May 19th.

When I saw ‘The Shape of Water,’ this year’s Oscar winner, and winner of the Golden Globe awards, I was at first repulsed but then intrigued, both with the film and its director Guillermo Del Toro.

As Purim is upon us, I can’t help comparing the Purim story to the latest popular Netflix series, ‘The Crown.’

Given the present day focus on gender abuse, the story portrayed here about Judith and the Maccabees seems to have particular contemporary relevance.

Honor your parents, follow your destiny, remember your ancestors, cherish honesty…prime Jewish values? Indeed, these are some of the main themes in the upcoming Joseph story throughout the final Torah portions of the book of Genesis.

Since the disclosures about Harvey Weinstein and others, a media flurry of ‘me too’ talk on sexual harassment has emerged- some of it constructive, some of it not so. My purpose here is not to comment on these individual responses, but rather to shed some healing perspectives about this issue, from this week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah.

For years people have asked me to recommend a movie to watch before Yom Kippur. I have often suggested the 1990 academy award nominee, "Flatliners."

Many rabbis ask why we do not say a blessing for an eclipse as we do for other natural phenomena that we encounter, like thunder and lightning, earthquakes, etc.

One of the memorable lines from the recent blockbuster Wonder Woman: “I will fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.”