Rabbi Arian's Ruminations

Have you ever heard of Kaifeng, China? Kaifeng was the home of the only indigenous Jewish community in China. There have been other Jewis...

Dear Friends: There are teachings in each religion that those of other religions often find puzzling. In my experience, one of the Christian...

This Shabbat we read Parashat Tzav. The word "tzav" is an imperative form of the word which also gives  us "mitzvah." Th...

I frequently talk about the way North American Jews often mistranslate the word "mitzvah" as "good deed" when in fact...

Dear Friends: Those of you who attend Shabbat morning services regularly hear me make the same point over and over: many of the translatio...

 When I began my rabbinical studies, I had a good background in Hebrew (from having spent a college year in Israel) and in both Bible and ...

Here’s an interesting statistic for you to ponder: in 1994, half of the world’s population had never made a telephone call. Fifteen year...