rabbi


INTERMARRIAGE - Why Marry Jewish?

INTERMARRIAGE - Why Marry Jewish?

What accounts for the steadily rising rates of intermarriage over the past 50 years? What are the chances that children of a mixed marriage will grow up identifying with Judaism? This lecture explores this disturbing development and offers the Jewish community some positive suggestions to help turn this crisis around. The following is a brief write up about the Video: Today probably the greatest threats to Jewish community are primarily internal, in the sense that the problems are more self-inf


Zalman Kravitz

Zalman Kravitz

The Ego and the Soul

The Ego and the Soul

You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him to find it within himself." - Galileo Jewish tradition teaches that we were created as sparks of God, "in the image of God," body and soul. God put his image on earth, in the form of human beings. One way to identify with the concept of the “image of God” is through a simple metaphor. Let us find out more about the ego and the soul in this post. Visualize a movie projector and a screen. When turned on, the light projects brightly onto the


Zalman Kravitz

Zalman Kravitz

A Wedding in Conflict

A Wedding in Conflict

Issue of the week #6 Note: The following letter was sent to us by a visitor to our site. We invite others to share their viewpoints with us. Dear Two Roads, My (Jewish) cousin is going to marry a Catholic man and this has divided our family. My folks will attend the reception but not the ceremony (after speaking with one of their Rabbis), but my aunt (an aunt of the engaged cousin) is refusing to have anything to do with her niece. I disagree with that approach entirely for so many reasons an


Zalman Kravitz

Zalman Kravitz

Respect

Respect

Dear Rebbe, I have a story for you. The following letter was sent to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson ZT'L Exactly ten years ago, I met my soulmate. Without going into great detail about our religious backgrounds, I will simply tell you that I was raised a Protestant and later joined Catholicism, and that my partner in life was raised agnostic but was born Jewish. Each of us had undergone great trials in our personal lives and had each sought God in our own way. For two year


Zalman Kravitz

Zalman Kravitz

Can an Orthodox Rabbi Respect Billy Graham?

Can an Orthodox Rabbi Respect Billy Graham?

The funeral of “America’s Pastor,” the Reverend Billy Graham, has been described as a continuation of the decades of his evangelical preaching. In his eulogy, son and successor, Franklin Graham restated his father’s message that “Jesus is the only way” to God. His message included a call to “repentance and salvation” saying that there was no better place or time than his father's funeral for a conversion to Christianity. As a Jew, I disagree with Graham’s beliefs in the Messiahship and divinity


Zalman Kravitz

Zalman Kravitz

HELP! My Friends Want to Convert me

HELP! My Friends Want to Convert me

“Jesus Camp,” this year’s Academy Award-nominated documentary, underscores an alarming trend. Christian youth, eager and well-trained, are determined to proselytize their friends. This bold, new effort is affecting Jewish students, and parents are turning to Jews for Judaism for help. Here are three recent, real life scenarios: • When a mother noticed that her son was crying himself to sleep for several weeks, she knew something was terribly wrong. Finally, he confided that a girl in his class


Zalman Kravitz

Zalman Kravitz

How to reply when the doorbell rings

How to reply when the doorbell rings

How to reply when the doorbell rings Jul. 2, 2008 Emanuel Feldman , THE JERUSALEM POST Many years ago, while a rabbi in Atlanta, I answered a knock on my door one Shabbat afternoon. Standing in front of me was a fine-looking couple - obviously non-Jewish. "Shabbat Shalom, rabbi," they said, and asked to have a word with me. I sensed that they were missionaries and asked them what the subject was. They replied that they wanted to talk to me about the "Son of God." I suggested that while I re


Zalman Kravitz

Zalman Kravitz