Category: Intra-Faith
Passover: Prison, Oppression and Modern Day Pharaoh
Bringing our discussions from Prison Ministry into my own preparations for Passover has opened up my midrashic imagination to the connections between ancient and modern day oppression. Learning about ... Read More
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
On the afternoon of Saturday, March 25, 1911, at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory located at the Ash building (today the Brown building) in lower Manhattan, one of the worst industrial accidents ever i... Read More
For God’s Sake, Art!
On the last night of Osama bin Laden’s earthly sojourn, unbeknownst to him, in the Student Commons at Virginia Commonwealth University, the Muslim Student Association at VCU presented its annual per... Read More
No Bull: A Rabbinic Teaching for Contemporary American Life
In a classic rabbinic tale about human ingenuity and Divine mystery (Menachot 29b in the Babylonian Talmud), God transports Moses forward in time to the study house of the renowned second-century sage... Read More
Rise up, Sotah: Contraception, Religion, and Slut-Shaming
One of the great things about the technological age is that we have a range of medicines and devices that make it possible to have a fulfilling sex life while significantly reducing the risk of an unp... Read More
Elephants in the Global Jewish Room
The uniqueness of my Jewish identity could be one of the reasons conference organizers have invited me to participate. I expect there will be people at the conference who won’t consider me to be a ... Read More
Purim: A Serious Misunderstanding Of The Festival’s Mirth
Purim’s cathartic effect is remarkable, providing an opportunity for Jewish communities to parody themselves and their own hierarchies and imbue often-serious religious practices with music and ... Read More
“Epistemic Justification and Religious Truth Claims: Heim’s More Pluralistic Hypothesis” by Wm. Andrew Schwartz
In his book, Salvations: Truth and Difference in Religion,1 S. Mark Heim presents what he calls a “more pluralistic hypothesis.”2 Heim’s position, as its name alludes, is in many ways a response... Read More