Shammai Engelmayer

1 month ago | njjewishnews.timesofisrael.com | Shammai Engelmayer

“The Torah is 3,340 years old. Its text has been studied and restudied ever since Moses received it and passed it on to us. It has nothing more to tell us, so why lose a whole night’s sleep on the first night of Shavuot studying it?”That sounds like a fair question, but it is not, and the best way to understand why is to study some Torah. So here goes: True or false? Shavuot begins at sundown this Sunday. True or false? Shavuot is the anniversary of the day that God gave us the Torah.

1 month ago | njjewishnews.timesofisrael.com | Shammai Engelmayer

Sixty years ago, on a sunny Sunday morning, New York’s Jewish community turned out on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan by the tens of thousands for what was being called “The Salute to Israel Day Parade.” It was followed immediately by a pro-Israel rally in Central Park that featured prominent political personalities and musical performances. The date for the parade — May 2 — was chosen because Israel’s Independence Day, Yom Ha’Atzmaut, was being observed four days later, on Thursday, May 6.

1 month ago | njjewishnews.timesofisrael.com | Shammai Engelmayer

I have a question for all of you Donald Trump voters: Are you feeling any buyer’s remorse as yet? If you are not regretting your vote last November 4th, you either have not been paying much attention to the news of late, or you are lying to yourselves. On March 15, for example, Trump pledged that the Houthis in Yemen would be “completely annihilated” because of an intensive bombing campaign he had ordered. That campaign ended on Monday of last week.

1 month ago | njjewishnews.timesofisrael.com | Shammai Engelmayer

The kosher laws, beginning with the ones in last Shabbat’s parashah, Shemini, have been among the most controversial and least observed categories of mitzvot throughout our history. To so many people, at least from the days of the Second Temple on, the whole idea of kashrut is nonsense. It was that way back then, and it is likely even more so today, because there is so much more for people to complain about today than there was 2,000 years ago.

2 months ago | jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com | Shammai Engelmayer |Deb Herman

If they gave out an award for the sickest April Fool’s joke, the current White House crowd most certainly would be among this year’s finalists, if not the winners. April 1, of course, is April Fool’s Day, but it is also a day on which all manner of formally recognized annual month-long civic observances are presidentially proclaimed — observances only a fool would turn his or her back on.