by Elliott Rabin | Jan 26, 2018 | Uncategorized
There is no event in American Jewish history more notorious, more iconic, than the Trefa Banquet (recently recreated in a TB 2.0). The story is usually told roughly as follows: For the first graduating class of rabbis at the Hebrew Union College, the first rabbinical...
by Elliott Rabin | Jan 12, 2018 | Uncategorized
In a larger sense, incessant novelty battled tradition and custom. “Newness and change themselves had become traditional in America,” writes William Leach, commenting on the “cult of the new,” which “readily subverted whatever custom,...
by Elliott Rabin | Dec 11, 2017 | Uncategorized
Several years ago, we published an article in HaYidion entitled “Hating God in Front of the Whole School.” In it, Rabbi Jeremy Winaker, head of school at Albert Einstein Academy in Wilmington, DE, discussed a fraught incident that took place: In the middle...
by Elliott Rabin | Oct 27, 2017 | Uncategorized
A recent report on NPR compared the results of two methods to try to increase memory. Both methods, ironically, were based on games using computer technology, which is surely responsible for a decrease in memory. While the researchers found that one was significantly...
by Elliott Rabin | Oct 10, 2017 | Uncategorized
Yom Kippur I have come to find an increasingly uplifting experience. The melodies and singing in my synagogue lift me like eagle’s wings. I look forward each year to exploring the piyyutim and various sections of the liturgy in greater depth; and for those...
by Elliott Rabin | Sep 19, 2017 | Uncategorized
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the holidays of literary tropes. We invoke blessings for the new year by eating symbolic foods (simanim) associated with good outcomes through qualities of the food (sweetness, seeds) or wordplay: After eating LEEK or CABBAGE, say:...
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