Rabbi Robert Scheinberg's page

My closing prayer at the Hoboken vigil on Wednesday evening June 15, in memory of those murdered in Orlando: I invite you to join me in praying to the Source of Life. Our various communities know you by many different names, but on this we agreed: we learned from You to treasure life. We learned from You that to take a life is like destroying the entire world, and to save a life is like saving the entire world. Dear God, Our heart breaks for 49 precious lives cut short because of who they were and who they loved. Where they gathered was supposed to be their safe space. In their memories, help us to make a safe world. Help us to make a safe world for our brothers and sisters who are gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender, who so often are targets of hatred and oppression and violence, so many of whom feel unsafe even in the best of times, let alone today. Help us to make a safe world for our brothers and sisters in this country who yearn simply to live their lives, t...

This is the note that I sent to the United Synagogue of Hoboken community following the Orlando murders. Dear friends, Our community, country and world are reeling after the tragic events in Orlando on Sunday morning.   Many of us are looking for a way to express our outrage at the murders in Orlando and to express solidarity with the families of those who were murdered, and with the LGBT community throughout the world that is disproportionately a target for hatred and violence.   We are all invited this evening (Wednesday June 15) at 7:15pm to participate in a vigil on the steps of Hoboken City Hall, with the participation of Mayor Zimmer, the Hoboken City Council, community clergy, and members of the LGBT community in our local area.    (See  http://patch.com/new-jersey/hoboken/hoboken-jersey-city-mourn-orlando-shooting-victims-vigil-set-tuesday-night )  I look forward to participating in this ceremony representing Hoboken's Jewish co...

This is the note I sent to my congregation.... As we approach Passover, I wanted to offer a few thoughts about an opinion published by Conservative Judaism's Committee on Jewish Laws and Standards that you might have seen earlier this year.  It has gotten a fair amount of news coverage (see, for example, http://www.jta.org/2016/04/12/ life-religion/rabbis-expand- the-passover-menu-but-will- conservative-jews-bite ).   Our rabbinic intern, Philip Gibbs, who is the secretary of the Committee on Jewish Laws and Standards, taught about this opinion this past shabbat.  Here is my summary of the issue.   ...

Some find it surprising that at the Passover Seder, we discuss weighty themes of slavery and freedom and redemption, but the culmination, the grand finale of the entire seder, is Had Gadya - basically the Jewish version of “I know an old lady who swallowed a fly.” In fact, there has been a lot of confusion in Jewish tradition about how this folk song for children managed to work its way into the Haggadah, such that it is now sung in virtually every Jewish community around the world:  “My father bought a little goat for two gold coins.  Then came a cat that ate the goat - that my father bought for two gold coins.  Then came a dog and bit the cat - that ate the goat - that my father bought for two gold coins.  Then came a stick - and beat the dog - that bit the cat......” etc. etc.  And the song concludes, ten verses later:  “And then came God, the Holy Blessed One, and slaughtered the Angel of Death - who slaughtered the butcher who slaughtered the ox...

At our synagogue's congregational seders for the last few years, we have played the following game:  I have collected unusual Pesach stories, and shared three such stories with the community:  two true stories, and one fictional story.  Participants then have to guess which two stories are true and which one is false.   (If you listen to   Wait, wait, don't tell me ,   you get the idea, except that only one story is false.) You can find previous years' stories here,   here ,   here ,   here   and   here .   The stories from our 2015/5775 seder are below.    Three unusual Pesach stories..... 2 are true, and one is fictional.  Can you figure out which story is not true?     (The answer is at the bottom.) ======================================================================   (a) With each passing year, the number of Kosher for Passover products continues to grow.  In 2015, Isr...

One of the most famous experiments in child psychology was conducted by Walter Mischel.   He would give preschool-age children a marshmallow, and then a tantalizing dilemma:   the child could eat the marshmallow now -- or, if the child succeeded in waiting for several minutes, the child would receive two marshmallows. This “marshmallow experiment,” as it came to be known, examines one of the most essential life skills:   delay of gratification.   Mischel and his team found that most of the young children were unable to delay their gratification; some ate the marshmallow immediately, and others made an effort but could not wait for more than a couple of minutes.   However, approximately 30% of the children were able to develop strategies that helped them to delay their gratification for the entire fifteen minutes.   Some children even blocked the marshmallow from their view so they could more easily focus on other things.      ...