Can you have a virtual minyan? Halachic authorities are unanimous: the answer is no. You cannot count a minyan of people who are separated geographically but connected through technology. The reason is simple: a minyan must consist of people who are together in the same room. And no matter how closely connected people may feelContinue reading “Virtually Jewish”
Category Archives: Random Thoughts
Reform and Conservative Judaism… What’s the Difference?
Rabbi Noah Zvi Farkas has an interesting article in the New York Jewish Week entitled “The Re-founding of Conservative Judaism,” in which he argues that Conservative Judaism has outgrown its historical reasons for existence and needs a “re-founding” based on community organizing. He’s probably right. But as a Reform rabbi, it got me to thinkingContinue reading “Reform and Conservative Judaism… What’s the Difference?”
New Jews… Old Idea
The “New Jews” article is making its way across cyberspace. Check out http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/10/28/new.and.emergent.jews/ for this story, about the new, innovative, radical ways that Jewish Gen X’ers and Millenials are connecting to Judaism – through tattoos, hip-hop, meaningful Jewish learning, and technology. I have one word in response….DUH. First, let me say that I think there’sContinue reading “New Jews… Old Idea”
The Next Jew Thang…
Last week, Rabbi Niles Goldstein – author of Gonzo Judaism and The Challenge of the Soul – spoke here at Shabbat services. He spoke about the importance of “being grounded,” using Picasso and Miles Davis as examples. As he writes in The Challenge of the Soul (p. 60): Pablo Picasso learned how to draw conventionalContinue reading “The Next Jew Thang…”
Rabbi Micah Streiffer 