By Rabbi Yerachmiel Shapiro I’ve always wondered why the first “request” blessing in the Amidah meditation is the prayer asking Hashem for wisdom. There are so many things we could ask for, why are wisdom and insight the first things we ask for every time we pray? David Kowarski, one of my most interesting congregants, often sends me texts letting…
By Rabbi Yerachmiel Shapiro Two neighbors were fighting over a financial dispute. They couldn’t reach an agreement, so they took their case to the local rabbi. The rabbi heard the first litigant’s case, nodded his head and said, “You’re right.” The second litigant then stated his case. The rabbi heard him out, nodded again and said, “You’re also right.” The…
Dr. Morton Maimon Mower, a noted American cardiologist and co-inventor of the Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator — a device that detects when a heart beats too rapidly or inefficiently and delivers a shock to produce a normal rhythm — died of cancer on Monday, Apr. 25, in Denver. He was 89. “As a medical inventor, his innovations restarted the hearts…
As an artist, Ann Kibel Schwartz enjoys experimentation, with different types of artistic mediums, which can go as far as creating art that attempts to escape from the very frame she has set it in. “I have a number of pieces that I did over the years that are trying to reach out beyond the frame,” Schwartz said when describing…
It was very kind of the JT to provide members of the Baltimore Board of Rabbis a forum to express their views freely. I had absolutely no guidelines for what I was to write about in this article. I thought, should I write a political article trying to convince readers to support my views on various issues, as if my…
Dear MMAE Family, In Parshas Shemini, which we just read, the Torah commands the kohanim to refrain from drinking alcoholic beverages before they do the service in the Mishkan or Temple. The Torah goes on to explain the reason- a crucial part of the kohain’s job is to differentiate between “pure and impure, holy and unholy”. In order to differentiate,…
Around the globe, compassionate individuals are watching the tragic events unfold in Ukraine and trying to devise ways to come to the aid of desperate refugees there in the wake of the Russian invasion. Some offer thoughts and prayers, while others write a check. The folks at Pikesville’s Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Hebrew Congregation feel they’ve come up with an…
As reported in the Baltimore Jewish Times, Baltimore will be getting a new music venue specially dedicated to Jewish music performances, courtesy of Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Hebrew Congregation. “There is [an] active culture and scene of Jewish music, but I’ve never heard of a venue that specializes in hosting and promoting Jewish music,” Rabbi Yerachmiel Shapiro said. “Typically, concerts…
Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Hebrew Congregation’s rabbinic residency program is actively creating the next generation of rabbinic leaders in America. “It’s a post smicha internship, or I would call it a fellowship, to give new rabbis real life experience and better prepare them to enter their own careers as pulpit rabbis,” said Rabbi Yerachmiel Shapiro. Shapiro had the idea for…