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What A 6 Year-Old Got Right

Posted on 07/29/2018 by Rabbi Elan Adler in Beliefs and Practices

Since coming to Israel eight years ago, I’ve done a lot of personal counseling in the Jerusalem area. As a synagogue rabbi in the US, I did a lot of counseling during the Shabbat morning kiddush, which...

Teaching Chanukah in a Catholic School

Posted on 12/19/2017 by Rabbi Elan Adler in Holidays

During my early years in the rabbinate, I was invited to be a hospice chaplain for Jewish families who had no synagogue affiliation. Joining a Methodist reverend and a Catholic priest, the three of us would...

Chanukah with the Governor of Rhode Island

Posted on 12/14/2017 by Rabbi Elan Adler in Holidays

Growing up as an observant Jew in Providence, Rhode Island, I attended the Providence Hebrew Day School, in which my father, of blessed memory, taught in the lower grades. I actually had him as my teacher in...

My Father And I Have Got You Covered

Posted on 10/29/2017 by Rabbi Elan Adler in Beliefs and Practices

Something I did today brought me right back, immediately, to a yearly activity I did with my father, of blessed memory. I didn’t want to let the warm feeling go and quickly came to my laptop to help me...

Criticize with Kindness

Posted on 07/09/2017 by Rabbi Elan Adler in Beliefs and Practices

“There’s always a nice and decent way to say something.” This is a lesson we repeated to our girls, whenever they would say something a bit edgy to each other or to me or my wife. The idea...