Rabbi Avi Heller
Early Childhood Education
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Vayera
I'm not an expert in early childhood education, but I was a kid once and I have three growing children who are rapidly learning about themselves, their values and their world. Aside from a few songs and various bits of material that I must have re-learned many times since then, I don't remember very...
Selling The Dream
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Lech Lecha
October 22, 1938[1] was one of those quiet days that changed the world as we know it. Chester Carlson, aspiring inventor and part-time patent clerk (which is what Einstein did to pay the bills also) made the first photocopied image on that day. He called his process electrography, which became...
Envy, Lust, Vainglory
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Noach
"Rabbi Elazar ha-Kappar said: envy, lust and vain-glory take a person out of this world" Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot) 4:21 The first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis read like a primer on how to tick off God. It is a litany of human disobedience and divine attempts to discipline....
Speaking Truth to Power
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Bereshit
Among the legends of the Jews are stories about the Golem, an 'unfinished', or artificial man. By Kabbalistic means, this Frankenstein could be temporarily animated to do one's bidding. Some of the Talmudic sages were reputed to have had this ability. Apocryphal stories claim that the great...
The VIP party
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Sukkot, Shmini Atzeret / Simchat Torah
I meet Jews all the time who want to identify themselves as Jews to me. I get it - I like my people, too. I have Jewish pride. But it would be a lot easier for them if we had a secret handshake or signal to distinguish them as a member of the tribe. You see, I look overtly Jewish, with my kippa...
Clouds of Glory
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Sukkot
Jews are a little crazy. So it shouldn't really surprise us that we've decided to build flimsy huts and spend lots of time in them right as the cold fall weather moves in.[1] And it shouldn't surprise that we are waving palm fronds and exotic 'lemons' around either. Regarding both the dwelling in...
Kol Nidrei
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Yom Kippur
Like most people, I am a coward when it comes to one of the most difficult, albeit essential, elements of the Yom Kippur holiday. I teach my students every year that God will not even give a hearing in the Yom Kippur courtroom to sins between a person and another person until the offender has first...
Echoes of Reality
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Rosh Hashanah
When I was a college freshman at Boston University, one of the great Rabbis of our generation - Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik - passed away. I am embarrassed to say that I didn't yet know much about this impressive modern Orthodox Rabbi-philosopher[1]. I was not a rabbi, had no plans to be a rabbi...
Disappointment
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags: Vayetze
My favorite image of OJ Simpson is a commercial he did for Hertz. Some poor woman has forgotten her ID at the checkout counter and is getting on the plane. OJ sprints broken-field through a crowded airport and hurdles a block of chairs – in a classic Heisman trophy motion – to catch up to her...
Midat Chassidut
Posted by Rabbi Avi Heller | Tags:
Is it possible to be a Jew according to only the letter of the law? Is it desirable? On some level, aren't we required to go above and beyond in our relationship with God? Discuss.
