This is the fourth of six weekly columns by Rabbi Zimmerman leading up to Yom Kippur. The cosmic principle of the entire High Holy Days season is teshuvah, which, unfortunately, is often translated as ...

It was the summer of 1967. Wearing some flowers in your hair. Free music in the park. Acid trips. Haight-Ashbury. The Monterey Pop Festival. “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” And it was also 50 years ago ...

This coming Shabbat is one of the two most holy in the Jewish year. It is called Shabbat Teshuvah. The other is the Shabbat just prior to Passover called Shabbat Hagadol (the Great Shabbat). The ...

Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook explains that teshuvah does not deal with a specific wrong. Rather, it relates to a general feeling of despondency and estrangement from God. Teshuvah means a ...

We are seated at a Shabbos table. This wide, blue-eyed, innocent-looking ba’al teshuvah is arguing fervently with a colorfully hip renegade frumie. The ba’al teshuvah is adamant. Rabbinically-ordained ...

In Likutey Moharan (I:6), Rebbe Nachman of Breslov tells us something astounding: “The true sign of a person who has returned to G-d is that they can hear themselves be insulted and remain silent.

Benjamin McDowell was arrested for plotting an attack on a synagogue. Years later, Rabbi Avram Mlotek sought him out. This is what he learned. (JTA) — Before I met him, I saw Benjamin McDowell’s name ...

Jordan has been incarcerated for 36 years on homicide charges and is living at State Correctional Institution-Phoenix in Montgomery County. Jordan hasn’t been able to see his friend, who’s being ...

Moses ‘went’ to his people in an act that models our need to turn in humility to one another. According to a midrash, Cain, after murdering his brother, left the courtroom rejoicing. On the way out, ...