by Rabbi Rami Shapiro | Feb 17, 2009 | Opinion
During a talk on Judaism delivered at a synagogue last week, I nonchalantly mentioned that I thought of myself as a humanist. I went on to define this as someone who assumed that all systems of belief were of human origin reflecting human biases, concerns and...
by Rabbi Rami Shapiro | Feb 11, 2009 | Opinion
Rod Dreher, author of Crunchy Cons, wrote a very moving and, to me, troubling essay in USA TODAY. The basic idea is that too much truth when it comes to religion is a bad thing. At issue is Rod’s journalistic examination of the sex abuse scandals that rocked the...
by Rabbi Rami Shapiro | Jan 15, 2009 | Opinion
Darwin wouldn’t daven anywhere, since davvenen (prayer) is a Jewish form of worship and Darwin was a Christian. But let’s not be so narrow. The real question is: Where can a scientifically sophisticated thinking Jew go to experience a liturgy that does not insult her...
by Rabbi Rami Shapiro | Dec 31, 2008 | Opinion
The January/February issue of Tikkun magazine, one of the most important journals of the spiritual left, features a series of “Memos to Obama” from a host of innovators, philosophers and holy rascals including yours truly. I urge you to subscribe to Tikkun...
by Rabbi Rami Shapiro | Dec 11, 2008 | Opinion
Judaism is going through a spiritual renaissance, but I worry that our quest for the mystical is at the cost of the intellectual. Jews want to chant and meditate, rather than learn how to creatively misread Torah in order to midwife new wisdom from ancient texts. And...
