Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Religious Zionist. Republican. Movie fanatic. Gun owner. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.
…In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and you shall not do any work … For on that day he shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the L-RD.
—Leviticus 16:29-30
[Read more…] about Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions
by Karen Singer Avrech
This past Shabbat our rabbi delivered the traditional Shabbat T’shuvah drasha, (homily). His essential message was that Modern Orthodoxy is doomed unless the importance of traditional halacha (jurisprudence) is understood and respected. Recent trends have favored “dynamism” and “innovation” to match the times, but have neglected the legalistic principles that have sustained the Jewish people for thousands of years.
Our rabbi explained that revolutionaries since Korach have championed the idea that we are all holy, decrying Moses’s leadership as elitist and unfair. Korach was demanding the egalitarianism of the “Progressive.”
The lesson that Moshe taught Korach is that yes, we are all created in G-d’s image and he has chosen us as his holy people, but there is another, essential aspect of holiness.
…In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and you shall not do any work … For on that day he shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the L-RD.
—Leviticus 16:29-30
Tonight begins Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. We will fast for 25 hours. Jews, all over the world, attend day-long prayer services, composed of spiritual and emotional prayers, poetry and songs.
Karen and I pray that Hashem will inscribe all our friends and relatives in the Book of Life.