blogs/rabbi-huberman

If you were to cite one Biblical passage as the most important in our entire tradition, what would it be?
 
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one? (Deuteronomy 6:4)
 
Maybe.
 
It may also be "Share your food with the hungry and take the wretched poor into your home and -- when you see the naked, clothe them." (Isaiah 58:7)
 
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There is an ad currently airing on national television, which depicts a number of subjects around a table recoiling in pain and horror.
 
Did these people suffer some severe physical injury? Did they experience some profound emotional loss?
 
In this ad, sponsored by General Motors, the cell phone of each subject is confiscated, apparently obliterated.
 
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I would like to introduce you to fifteen young people who are no more.
 
There are Jadin Bell, Tyler Clementi, Ryan Patrick Halligan, Jamie Hubley, Megan Meier, Alyssa Morgan, Rehtach Parsons, Audrie Pott, Phoebe Prince, Nicola Ann Raphael, Jamey Rodemeyer, Amanda Todd, Kenneth Weishuhn, Dawn-Marie Welsey and Kelly Yeoman.
 
In many ways, these were ordinary young...Read more...

Have you ever wondered why you were born into the situation you are in? It is one of life's central questions.
 
When we look around us, there are so many who seem better off. Life appears easy for them. And then there are others we encounter, who face tragedy and consistent challenge.
 
While few of us are deprived of food or shelter, so many in our...Read more...

In 2013, I attended a lecture by Jewish-British writer, educator, and broadcaster Clive Lawton. 

"Judaism has changed in many countries during the past seventy years," he told us. "In Israel, Judaism has been nationalized. In the United States it's been privatized."
 
He's right, when you think about it.
 
Judaism, prior to the last...Read more...