“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.” –Martha Graham
Of the variety of physiological responsa that human beings exhibit when we receive certain types of information, I find dance to be the most intriguing. Like laughter, it’s not intuitively obvious why motion should sate our desire for expression. It’s certainly possible to process and enjoy [...]

It is widely supposed that Charles Darwin’s theory of the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection is as correct and certified as the laws of gravity or thermodynamics. Millions of people the world over accept the veracity of the principle as an abundantly obvious fact and view those who question it as simpletons, [...]

This weeks Torah portion focuses on the (now extinct) disease of “Tzara’at”.  It would appear in several forms including on homes, clothing and skin and when it would, a process of investigation ensued.  Instead of going to a doctor, one who suspected that he or she had contracted the illness would go to a Cohen [...]

There is an interesting blessing that religious Jews make after usage of the restroom.  It concludes “Blessed are you Gd, healer of all flesh and doer of wonders.”  What are these wonders?  According to mystical sources its referring to the wonder of opposites (body and soul) kept tied together.  In fact, is some sense we [...]

Though expecting to be rather irked by it, I was surprised to find myself almost enjoying (and agreeing) with a lot of what Sam Harris had to say in his TED Talk entitled “Science can Answer Moral Questions.” His thinking regarding the balance that needs to be struck between the Taliban’s “cloth prison” approach to [...]

The Theist holds the Intellectual High-Ground
By Rabbi Moshe Averick
 
On 3/6/11 Rabbi Adam Jacobs, managing director of Aish Hatorah, NYC, and columnist for the religion section of the Huffington Post, wrote an article entitled, “A Reasonable Argument for God’s Existence.”  It elicited an avalanche of both “Liked this” postings to Facebook (nearly 8000) and Comments (over [...]

A notable feature of the Book of Esther is the absence of God from the story.  In fact, it is the only book of the Hebrew cannon that lacks even one mention of a divine name.  Notably also, is that there are no miraculous occurrences – all of the action is attributable to normative social [...]

Are human beings simply the most successful version of the creatures in the animal kingdom, or are we something more?  What, besides our advanced capabilities, distinguishes us from the other beasts out there?  Very often, we refer to the “natural world” and the animal kingdom while excluding ourselves and there are people who could make the case [...]

For many centuries scientists and philosophers have struggled with the “mind-body” problem.  On the one hand, it’s clear to every sentient human being that we have a strong sense of a “self”.  We naturally believe that there is an “I” that is in control of our bodies.  From the perspective that believes that humanity is [...]

Ever since Einstein people have come to understand that time is not the consistent and predictable thing that it seems.  He explained to us that the forces of gravitation effect the rate at which time unfolds so that what may seem like a normal 5 minutes to us may very well be a much longer [...]