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This is a review essay of three books in which the authors discussed a Jewish response to the Big Bang Theory and other recent theories in modern cosmology. The article also survey earlier Jewish writing on the Big Bang and is one of my more thorough attempts to understand the relationship between science and religion. Continue Reading »
The article utilizes the Birkat Ha-Mazon (Grace After Meals) to explore the relationship between real and symbolic space in the context of the transformation of the sacred center world-view, or locative myth.”This myth posits a cosmic point of time and space which links the earth, heaven, and the underworld. At this point creation or primordial time is Continue Reading »
This was my first major article on Judaism and the environment. It has been reprinted in several books: Judaism and Environmental Ethics: A Reader, edited by Martin D. Yaffe, Lexington Books, Lantham, Maryland, 2001. Environmental Ethics: Divergence and Convergence, Third Edition, by Susan J. Armstrong and Richard G. Botzler, 2004. Religion and the Environment: Critical Concepts Continue Reading »
This article incorporated material that I first learned with Rabbi Dr. Yochanan Muffs (June 3, 1932 – December 6, 2009) at the Jewish Theological Seminary. I was looking to find a rationale for the mitzvot that saw them as a means to an end and not an end in themselves. I utilized the literal conceits Continue Reading »
This article was my next foray into the Science/Religion dialogue. It looks at the theological implications of the Anthropic Principle, a scientific theory that was first coined around 1981. It postulates that the existence of conscious observers (i.e. human beings) at this particular time in the history of the universe is not a random event Continue Reading »
This article arose out of a conference on the Holocaust and the “second generation” that took place in Ottawa, Canada in the middle 1980’s. I created a presentation on religious responses to the Holocaust which became this article. My work on religious responses to the Holocaust dates back to my first year as a rabbi Continue Reading »
This was my first published article on the Science/Religion relationship. I was attempting to deal with the problem of evil by utilizing some new theories on chaos and disorder. The title is a bit of problem (the journal wanted to change it) but don’t let that scare you off. I probably would write a very Continue Reading »
This article contains a final confession or vidui that I wrote with a women who was dying of cancer during my first years in the rabbinate. The article contains in introduction about the genesis of the prayer, the prayer, and a line by line commentary. 1272-kaylas-prayer
This is my first published article. It was originally written for a class with Rabbi Neil Gillman at the Jewish Theological Seminary when I was in Rabbinical School. In this class Rabbi Gillman wanted each of us to write a personal theology in some form or another. I chose to recast Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles Continue Reading »