Nov 6th, 2009
by rabbifink.
KCET (the local PBS affiliate) has been working on a city-wide project. It is called Departures and it focuses on the people and places that make the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. For the last six weeks they have been working on Venice. Today they came to the Pacific Jewish Center Shul on the Beach to learn about us and to be included in their upcoming Venice piece.
It was a true honor and privilege to be a part of this worthwhile project. The production should be finished in February and I look forward to seeing that.
The camera crew shot some footage of our morning services and did two interviews. (more…)
Aug 23rd, 2009
by rabbifink.
Haveil Havalim #231 is being hosted at Esser Agaroth.
Check it out by clicking here for a variety of very interesting links from all around the J-blogosphere.
Thanks to Esser Agaroth for hosting and doing another super job!
(And thanks for linking my post on Brett Favre.)
Jul 19th, 2009
by rabbifink.
One of my favorite gadget blogs ran a despicable headline for a post yesterday. Gizmodo is a great blog when it comes to getting information, reviews and opinions on the latest technology and gadgets. Unfortunately, yesterday they disgraced their reputation with a pretty offensive headline.
The headline garnered enough attention that they ultimately changed it to something less offensive.
(more…)
Jul 14th, 2009
by rabbifink.
During the summer months many people find some extra time to catch up on their reading. By reading, I mean books with paper, ink, covers and turning pages. I don’t mean on a backlit display plugged into an electrical outlet.
This summer, I have been too busy to do any real substantive offline reading. I have done a lot of online reading, but my book reading has fallen behind.
One exception has been DovBear on the Parsha, and you can read my review here.
Part of the reason for this is that in my “spare time” I usually end up reading up on Law School materials. I actually enjoy reading cases and Law Review articles, so my reading of other stuff has fallen a bit behind.
There is plenty of summer left and I thought it would be nice to provide some of my all time favorite reads and a quick note about why I like each book.
(more…)
Jul 12th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Another week, another Haveil Havalim.
This week’s round-up is hosted by “How To Be An Israeli”. A number of excellent blog posts from the week that was are linked.
An excellent job all around.
My Book Review of DovBear on the Parsha is mentioned with a very nice comment:
Rabbi Fink talks of being swept away by DovBear’s passion and insight; I felt the same way about reading this post!
Thanks for the mention.
To check out Haveil Havalim #225 click through. (more…)
Jul 5th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Once again a very talented Jewish blogger has provided the weekly Haveil Havalim Jewish Blog Round-up.
This week it is hosted by A Time of the Signs.
I am mentioned not once, but twice in the round-up. Once for my Michael Jackson post and once more for my guest post on DovBear about Onymous vs. Anonymous blogging which was cross-posted on my blog as well.
Thank you Toby for the mentions! You can find all the links by clicking through. (more…)
Jun 14th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Another Sunday, another Haveil Havalim
The weekly Haveil Havalim roundup of the Jewish blogs is hosted this week by Ima on and off the Bima.
You can find a tremendous number of blogs and articles from this past week. Certainly there is more than enough reading material for a little while.
My post about the plight of Mideastern Jewry that was written the morning of the Holocaust Museum Shooting is mentioned.
Thank you to “Ima” for including me, hosting the round up and doing all the work to sort through all the Jewish blogs!
Click below to see the “round up”.
(more…)
Jun 3rd, 2009
by rabbifink.
I have had my critiques of David Brooks from the NY Times.
But today, I think he got it right. Really right. Like, 100% right.
He was asked about the “Big Three”. No, not GM, Ford, Chrysler. No, not Harvard, Yale, Princeton. Not, Clemenceau, Wilson, George either.
The new Big Three is Guns, Gays and Abortion. (more…)
May 17th, 2009
by rabbifink.
I blogged a little while back about the pinch being felt in Jewish Day School and Yeshivas.
The LA Times must be reading my blog because they finally caught on to this growing problem. Today I read about the familiar names in our Los Angeles Jewish community who are suffering budget crises.
Is there hope for our schools? Is it possible to sustain a system that requires such tremendous financial commitment from its families? (more…)
May 1st, 2009
by rabbifink.
Last week, my Shabbos morning Drasha (sermon) sought to give meaning to the Torah’s laws regarding evil speech and gossip. As punishment for these social crimes an individual would contract a spiritual disease that was similar in appearance to leprosy. Once the disease was was diagnosed by the halachic authority (Kohen) as the spiritually caused leprosy the individual would need to leave the town and stay outside the city for a little while.
The crime was social and the punishment was social. By speaking ill of others the individual became separated from the fabric of society and could only learn this lesson once physically removed from the social environment.
We touched a number of other points and expanded this point further as well.
The upshot of the Drasha was to remind everyone of the importance of tolerance and that we must embrace our interdependence on one another. The perfect Torah society will be a perfect social society.
I contrasted this with the society I noticed in the ESPN.com poll which I blogged about last week. (If you have not seen that yet – check it out.)
I am always asked for “examples” of how we can improve our behavior or work on ourselves. In this context I was asked, “how can we make our society more interdependent?”. I am very reluctant to dispense such advice.
(more…)
Apr 24th, 2009
by rabbifink.
Look, I enjoy sports. (Go Lakers). But this is getting ridiculous!
Nearly 48 thousand people have voted (as of this posting) on the current poll in ESPN.com that asks the following query:
Who do you know more about?
- Potential First Round Picks in the NFL Draft
- People in your office/class
I am surprised by the results.
(more…)
Feb 23rd, 2009
by rabbifink.
I am sure you have noticed the new Tropicana Advertisements.
The ads are concurrent with their new branding and packaging. The ads are noted for their use of male figures (that is pretty rare…).
Now the ads are being pulled and the packaging is returning to the old packaging which we all remember and love.
(more…)
This post is really two Public Service Announcements.
Yesterday I flew from New York to Los Angeles. We got to the airport just under 3 hours before our flight. This is a direct result of missing a few flights in the last few years. We always err on the side of caution.
