Today is Ordination Sunday for the Los Angeles campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.  A new crop of rabbis will be ordained.  After five long years of study (and some of them six because they got another degree in Jewish Education) the newest generation of rabbis will enter into the “business” of the…Read more »

Oil and vinegar don’t mix. The sour faces on the Oil executives that appeared before Congress this week told a story.  It is not enough that thousands of barrels of oil are pouring into the Gulf of Mexico but their lack of responsibility for this environmental disaster is the vinegar -the acid that burns.  They…Read more »

THIS IS A WHALE OF A TALE!   But a sad comment on climate warming…are we doing our jobs as stewards of our planet/the Garden of Eden? THIS FROM YAHOO NEWS: Tue May 11, 3:40 pm ET JERUSALEM (AFP) – The appearance of a grey whale off the coast of Israel has stunned scientists, in what…Read more »

Parshat Bemidbar Numbers 1:1 – 4:20 We begin a new book of the Torah with this week’s portion, Bemidbar. We begin the book of Numbers which is how this book gets its English name. The Hebrew name means in the Wilderness and the narrative of this book tells of the years of wandering from Sinai…Read more »

When is a cross not a Christian symbol?  Evidently when it comes before the Supreme Court.  On April 28 the United States Supreme Court in a split 5-4 decision permitted a cross to stand on public land in the Mojave National Preserve.  It was erected more than 80 years ago by the Veterans of Foreign Wars…Read more »

My cousin David is ours.  He is our family genealogist! He has traced the Eger family way back to Romania! Who is your family genealogist?  Are you interested in learning or becoming your family history keeper and discoverer?  Or perhaps you already are!  Whether one is a beginning, intermediate or advanced family history researcher –this…Read more »

President Obama nominated Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court to fill the seat of Justice Stevens.  Kagan is presently the Solicitor General of the United States. She has had a distinguished career as the former Dean of Harvard Law and a professor at the University of Chicago.   She also served during the Clinton administration as…Read more »

Jewish astronaut set to blast off May 6, 2010 NEW YORK (JTA) — A Jewish astronaut will bring the presidential proclamation creating Jewish Heritage Month into space. “The timing is perfect,” Garrett Reisman told reporters during a NASA conference call, as the commemoration is marked each May. Reisman, 42, is a mission specialist launching on…Read more »

We are more than half way through the period of counting the Omer. Today is the 39th day of counting.   Shavuot looms starting Tuesday evening, May 18.  Eleven more days until we stand at Sinai wants again to receive the covenant.   During the omer period since Passover there are mystic traditions that invoke the sephirot-the divine aspects. …Read more »

A teacher showed her preschool students a display of magnets and explained their uses. Considering the lesson plan a success, the teacher quizzed the class: “Who can guess what I am? My name starts with an M and I pick up things.”  The children shouted: “Mommy!”  (adapted from Random House Book of Jokes and Anecdotes, Joe Claro Editor)…Read more »