Are you a maker of new year resolutions? Even if you are not, I hope that you will resolve to do the following: read the essay by Atul Gawande that appeared in the August 2, 2010 issue of The New Yorker magazine titled “Letting Go: What Should Medicine Do [...]

I had a dream, which was not all a dream. The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars Did wander darkling in the eternal space, Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air; Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day, [...]

These are fearsome times. From the moment we awaken until the time we close our eyes for the night, there is no shortage of alarming facts, reports and images that come our way from a multitude of venues: Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, the Internet, cable television....all bringing us grim news [...]

Did you have one? A childhood imaginary friend? “Many young children (about 65 percent) develop imaginary friends between the ages of 3 and 5, at a time when they are beginning to form their own identities and test the boundaries between fantasy and reality. Although it was generally believed [...]

Were I asked to sum up, in one word, the High Holy Days experience, I would choose the word “change” and I think it fair to say that “praying for change” is what this sacred time is really about. In keeping with High Holy Day themes which urge us [...]

Early July brought us the grim news of the murder of three Jewish Israeli teens followed by the even more gruesome revenge murder of a Palestinian teen. What followed was tragically predictable: crackdowns, rioting, Hamas-launched rocket attacks, Israel’s response in Gaza with “Operation Protective Edge.” Cue the talking-heads and [...]