Open Letter to My Students 73: October 7, Revisited
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D.
by lawrenceahoffman
1w ago
Last week, while lecturing in Miami, I went to see Nova, a traveling art installation described as “an in-depth remembrance of the brutal massacre at the Nova Music Festival on October 7…. the largest massacre in music history.” I say ..read more
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Open Letter to My Students 72: War and the Murky Middle 
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D.
by lawrenceahoffman
1M ago
“No one likes middles: reaching middle age, for example, or watching our own body middle expand.” So said the late (and great) Rabbi Dr. Michael Signer, bemoaning the unpopularity of his own area of expertise: the Middle Ages.  In ethical ..read more
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Open Letter to My Students 71:  Why We Celebrate a New Year
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D.
by lawrenceahoffman
1M ago
I no longer stay up late on New Year’s Eve. The Times Square ball can drop without me. But I watch with amazement as so much of the world descends into a sort of drunkenfest – and at inflated prices ..read more
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Open Letter to My Students 71:  Why We Celebrate a New Year
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D.
by lawrenceahoffman
1M ago
 I no longer stay up late on New Year’s Eve. The Times Square ball can drop without me. But I watch with amazement as so much of the world descends into a sort of drunkenfest – and at inflated prices ..read more
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Open Letter to My Students 70: In a Time of Despair
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D.
by lawrenceahoffman
3M ago
What keeps us going in times of despair; when (to cite Deuteronomy 28:67), “In the morning we say, ‘If only it were night’, and in the evening we say, ‘If only it were morning.”   Or as the Talmud puts it ..read more
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Open Letter to My Students 69: A Box of Chocolates?
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D.
by lawrenceahoffman
4M ago
Maybe Forrest Gump was right: “Life is a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.” I think about life at this time of year, with the High Holiday hopes in my rearview mirror and the immediacy of ..read more
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Open Letter to My Students 68: The Weight of a Year Gone By
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D.
by lawrenceahoffman
4M ago
Time has weight and the Jewish year just ending has been the heaviest year in recent memory. Every day brought fresh rockslides of headline news crashing round about us. When you are buried in rubble, you struggle to get out ..read more
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Open Letter To My Students 67: A High Holy Day Message from Home
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D.
by lawrenceahoffman
4M ago
I do like to write about “home,” especially when Rosh Hashanah rolls round and people head home for the holidays. Never mind the reality: broken homes, dysfunctional families, aging parents, and the mystery of undying sibling rivalry. Charles Henry Parkhurst ..read more
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Open Letter to My Students 65: Thoughts on Israel Part 2: The Student Protests in Perspective
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D.
by lawrenceahoffman
9M ago
It’s time to see the campus protests in perspective. Why do students protest? And how does a Zionist like me respond?             The “why” has many answers.              Start with the human urge to matter. When you’ve given or heard your share of eulogies, you realize that except for their immediate families, most people, for most of their lives, don’t live for anything terribly profound. They work, travel, golf, take the kids to the doctor, figure out what’s for dinne ..read more
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Open Letter to My Students 64: Thoughts on Israel Part 1: I am a Zionist. So are Lots of People Who Say They are Not. Back to Basics. And What I Fear Most.
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D.
by lawrenceahoffman
10M ago
This is not the first time the word “Zionist” has come under attack. Back in 1975, 72 nations supported a United Nations resolution that called Zionism “a form of racism and racist discrimination (35 nations were opposed; 32 abstained). The resolution was reversed in 1991. But here we are again, no UN resolution this time round (at least so far), but, instead, international student protesters, many of them Jewish. Most of them have never known a Jewish state governed by anyone except Benjamin Netanyahu – who is part of what I fear most: but more on that later.      &nb ..read more
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