Jewneric: A New Platform for the Jewish Voice Archives: Prayer
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1 July 2008
The Other Leather Bondage
I, once again, feel I may be going into territory not as family friendly as this site is intended. If your sensibilities are easily offended (or if you think I really have gone “too far”), feel free to express yourself in comments.
Some teachers have one liners that live on outside the classroom. One of my [...]
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17 April 2008
Davening Man Removed from Plane
On Wednesday night, an Orthodox man boarded a United Airlines flight from JFK to San Francisco. Before the flight took off, he went to the back of plane to daven, probably Mincha (Maariv could have waited). The crew asked him to sit for takeoff, but since he was in the middle of the [...]
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17 February 2008
The New Month of Adar
The new month of Adar has just begun and we are reminded by the rabbis that this is a time for rejoicing. As we prepare to celebrate this special time of joy, families in Demona, Israel will be grieving the loss of loved ones who were shopping in a mall when a suicide terrorist [...]
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8 February 2008
Deep Thinking: Where is G-D?
Do you ever wonder why we need a Synagogue or a Temple to serve G-d? I mean, He’s everywhere, why focus our service of Him on a building?
Sometimes I find myself cleaning my desk, and after a while I realize that I’m just trying to bring order to my life. It stands to reason that [...]
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1 February 2008
Sing-a-long with Bob Dylan and other Reform Prayer Services
A couple of weeks ago, my elderly parents (both in their upper eighties) went to their Reform temple (they do not call it a synagogue) for Friday evening services. My parents are devoted and involved members of the Reform movement. My dad was President of the temple and my mother served on numerous committees, including [...]
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20 January 2008
Broader Judaism in Preparation for Martin Luther King Day II
Rabbi Capers Funnye leads his congregation at Beth Shalom Bnai Zaken in Chicago, Il, where his synagogue has been in existence since 1918. Except for a few members, almost all are African American or of Ethiopian descent. Rabbi Funnye is also a writer on JVoices.com.
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20 September 2007
In a Den of Thieves, Looking for Answers
As the final hours before the opening of the “holiest day of the year” are upon us, I wonder the same thing I always do. Who the hell do any of us think we’re kidding? A sincere day of introspection and change? Poppycock. Hanging in the balance between life and death? [...]
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17 September 2007
Mikvah Tactics for the Nervous Bather
I have noticed in the last few years that more and more people seem to be going to the mikvah on the days before Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. While this is a longstanding tradition, densely populated areas sometimes lack the mikvah space to accommodate their High Holiday traffic. And while we certainly wouldn’t want [...]
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16 September 2007
Kinos Teshuva
The time between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur (this week) is a time of intense prayer (tefilla) and repentance (teshuva).
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6 September 2007
The Many Sounds of the Shofar
As I was standing in shul one Elul morning, I heard the powerful sounds of a shofar blown with considerable demonstration of skill and not a little flair. Next to me, a young boy asked his father, “Why did that man blow the shofar so long?” His father replied, “He’s showing off.”
This disturbed me greatly, [...]
