A Non-Legendary Hero

It’s more popular than ever these days to take a shot at debunking the Bible. One of the sophomoric tactics employed is dismissing the Bible as a collection of fairy tales and legends, which usually indicates that the critic either hasn’t read the Bible with any care or doesn’t know that much about fairy tales…

A Shavuot Meditation

When Israel arrives at Mount Sinai days before the first Shavuot, Moses ascends the mountain and receives a message from Hashem for all Israel: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exod 19:4). Hashem will go on to enlist…

A Blog for Father’s Day

Sunday, June 16, three weeks off, will be my twentieth Father’s Day without a father. My dad, Arnold Earl Resnik, was born in New York City on August 13, 1915, and died in a Southern California nursing home on April 10, 1999. About fifteen years earlier Mom and Dad were visiting us in Albuquerque when…

Self-Distancing and Soul-Talk

The cover article of the current issue of Psychology Today talks about how to "Silence Your Inner Critic." It opens with the story of Elena, a recent law-school graduate at the top of her class, who botches a job interview. One of the recommended techniques to silence the inner critic that kicks in at such…

When to take offense

My last blog, on conflict resolution, was based on a presentation I gave recently at a UMJC leaders’ conference. At the end of the presentation, one of my colleagues came up to me and said he appreciated what I had to say, but wanted to add that the best approach to conflict is not to…

How to help resolve conflict

One bright sunny morning, back when I was a congregational rabbi, I got a phone call from one of our members, Fred. “Rabbi, I’m so glad I caught you. I know how busy you are, but I just need five minutes.” Now Fred is an anonymous, composite character, but you know what’s going to happen…

Only God Can Name God

As we tick off another year of the 21st century, it’s not easy to talk about God. A recent blog I posted cites a New York Times op-ed, “It’s Getting Harder to Talk About God”, which notes, “An overwhelming majority of people say that they don’t feel comfortable speaking about faith, most of the time.”…

A Deliverer is Born—in Egypt!

 Parashat Shemot, Exodus 1:1–6:1 Most of the Christian world is celebrating the birth of the Messiah this week, and in the synagogue we are reading the early chapters of Exodus, which recount the birth of another deliverer, Moses. Scholars have long noted similarities between the two birth accounts, especially in the version of Messiah’s birth…

Prudence, Bush 41 & Abraham

After President George H.W. Bush passed away on the night of November 30, one of the first of many tributes to be posted was titled, “The two-syllable word that summed up George H.W. Bush—in the best way.” That word, according to columnist David Von Drehle, is “prudence,” as in comedian Dana Carvey’s Saturday Night Live…

Courage: the Essential Virtue

When Avram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he led out his trained men, who had been born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. During the night he and his servants divided his forces against them, then attacked and pursued them all the way to…