Rabbi Michael Leo SamuelThe “Jim Crow Laws” remind us of one of the most shameful chapters of American history, a time when many Southern states enacted laws designed to keep Afro-Americans from enjoying the same civil liberties and rights that blacks enjoyed in the Northern states.
Intimidation tactics were routinely carried out for several decades until the last of the Jim Crow laws were banned once and for all by 1971, In 1971, the Supreme Court, in Swann v. ...
Learn More ShareAs I prepare myself for Shabbat, I enjoy using the time to commune with God. Usually, I imagine myself as a being surrounded by God’s light, the mystical light called, “Shekhinah,” “The Indwelling One.” Prayer is all about transparency; it is about being honest with one’s own soul and with God. Prayer is not so much about “speaking to God,” it is more about listening to God. In the silence of our being-the Shekhinah dwells and speaks. I often like ...
Learn More ShareWhenever I celebrated Purim in Me’ah Sharim, the Haredi epicenter of Jerusalem, I always marveled at the costumes the Haaredim used to wear. Every year, the Haredim participate in cross-dressing. Haredim in drag. What a sight to behold. Haredim and Hasidim literally let their hair down.
Any good Christian bible reader knows that cross-dressing is forbidden in the Torah. Men are forbidden to dress as women, since the proscription reads, “neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment, neither may a ...
Learn More ShareStudying the philosopher Jacques Derrida is never for the squeamish of heart. When you read his writings, you have to wonder why he can’t seem to formulate his ideas in a more straight-forward language. Derrida almost always writes in the idiom of “doublespeak.” What exactly is “doublespeak,” you might ask? Doublespeak is language constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning—it is the language of ambiguity; it is also the language of punsters.
Well, one of my friends thought that Derrida ...
Learn More ShareThis afternoon, I concluded my winter lecture series on “The Seven Deadly Sins-A Comparative Study” at St. Ambrose University. This posting is a brief summary of some of the salient points we discussed during our last session.
The Vatican posted the following list of modern sins that characterize our era’s for evil.
(1) genetic modification, (2) human experimentation (3) polluting the environment (4) social injustice (5) causing poverty (6) financial gluttony (7) taking drugs.
A Brief Analysis of ...
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