Young Jewish Adult – Page 3 – Rabbi Jon 's Website and Blog

March 12, 2025

Antisemitism, Our Security and Our Souls — Wisdom From the Book of Esther

This was Dvar Torah for Shabbat Zachor last weekend, March 8, 2025. Last year at this time, I coined a term for a brand-new approach to wellbeing. I called it EIST, for “Esther-Informed Spiritual Therapy.” The big idea is that the Purim story is the best mirror in entire Tanakh, the whole Bible, for Jews… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Esther, Holidays, Jewish Education, Leadership, Parashat Hashavua, Patience, Power, Purim, Shabbat Zachor, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

March 6, 2025

More College

I am noting that in the Lit and Arts course, what seems to be easiest for me to understand (and was back then too?) is architecture. I'm not spatial, generally, and geometry was my weakest part of math. But the layout of churches seems to be intelligible to me. Charlemagne's church architecture has a logic… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Art, College, History, Israel, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

March 6, 2025

A Year of Jewish Ethics #12: Exodus and Freedom

In my overview of ethics and Exodus, you may have noticed I didn’t talk about one central idea: freedom! Well, the Jewish conception of freedom deserves its very own presentation. In Judaism freedom has many layers. The term for free people is b’nai chorin; a free person might be a bat chorin or a ben… Continue reading

A Year of Jewish Ethics, Beshalach, Ethics, Freedom, Justice, Middot, Parashat Hashavua, Power, Torah, Yitro, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

March 5, 2025

Back to College Update

It has always been hard for me to find a way to interact with art that isn’t verbal. I want to think and talk about the concepts that are artistically represented, to interpret them. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it seems incomplete. As I go over Lit and Arts, I’m thinking about this but… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Art, College, History, Israel, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

February 23, 2025

College: Historical Transitions

Professor Hall started his course with a terrific introduction, setting out the goal of the course: to figure out why in particular Great Britain, France, and Germany entered the modern age from similar medieval conditions but took such different political routes. Britain had a relatively nonviolent transition toward democracy. French made the transition with violence… Continue reading

Art, College, History, Inclusion, Israel, Power, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

February 20, 2025

A Year of Jewish Ethics #11: Exodus and Ethics

Most of this series is about specific concepts in Jewish ethics, but like the last one I recorded I want to talk here about something foundational, namely the Exodus story and how it generates so much of Jewish ethics. Sometimes when we say “Exodus” we’re talking about the part we focus on during Pesach, the… Continue reading

A Year of Jewish Ethics, Abuse, Antisemitism, Ethics, Exodus, Middot, Parashat Hashavua, Shmot, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

February 10, 2025

A Year of Jewish Ethics #10: Teshuvah

One of the most fundamental Jewish ethical practices is teshuvah. Teshuvah is the word that’s often translated as “repentance” and is too often just associated in people’s minds with the season of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Yamim Nora’im or Days of Awe. The word teshuvah has a broader meaning of “going back” or… Continue reading

A Year of Jewish Ethics, Bereshit, Ethics, Maimonides, Middot, Miketz, Parashat Hashavua, Teshuvah, Vayeshev, Vayiggash, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

February 10, 2025

I’m a Second Semester Freshman

Okay, it’s second semester of my first year of college in this plan I'm doing, and already I’m a week and a half behind. I will catch up this week and then do the project the way I intended, which is a day at a time. “This semester”, I am taking first of all Introduction… Continue reading

Art, College, Education, History, Israel, Jewish Education, Psychology, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

January 30, 2025

A Year of Jewish Ethics #9: If Someone Treats You Badly How Good Do You Have to Remain?

All of us want to hold ourselves to a high standard of integrity and honesty and to go the extra mile for people as much as we can. But what happens when we are stuck dealing with another person who is either straight up unethical toward us, or whose actions are only just technically acceptable,… Continue reading

A Year of Jewish Ethics, Ethics, Middot, Money, Parashat Hashavua, Torah, Vayetze, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

January 29, 2025

Wrapping Up My First Semester

I am probably already getting a late start on my second semester of college review, so here I am bundling all my leftover notes about first term. I haven't mentioned my Hebrew literature class with Professor Safran. I don't know that I have notes. We read mostly Agnon stories, and talked a lot about his… Continue reading

Books, College, Ethics, Hebrew, Justice, Psychology, Tzedek, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

December 25, 2024

A Message for the Start of Chanukkah 5785 (2024)

This is the note I sent our synagogue community today, before the first candle of Chanukkah. Chag Urim Sameach! Dear Friends: Tonight begins Chanukkah, the festival of light and miracles and hope. This year Chanukkah comes at a time of ongoing war in Israel, and at the end of a difficult year for Jews everywhere.… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Holidays, Hope, Israel, Jerusalem, Power, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

December 19, 2024

A Year of Jewish Ethics #6: Ownership

In chapter 23 of Bereshit Sarah dies and in order to bury her, Avraham makes his first purchase of land. Burial is such an important mitzvah, and it’s important that a mitzvah becomes the context for the first purchase recorded in the Torah. What does this teach us about a Jewish ethic of ownership? Avraham… Continue reading

A Year of Jewish Ethics, Chayei Sarah, Equality, Ethics, Parashat Hashavua, Young Jewish Adult, Youth