I am totally out of sync. Read more...

I love LA after it rains. The water dries, and for at least a brief time, the showers clear the air and wipes away the smog that sits heavily around the city. In those moments, from atop the hills of Bel Air where American Jewish University is located, you can see clearly for miles - actually witnessing the beauty of the mountains, the valley, the clouds, and from one spot close to campus, even a sliver of the ocean shore. Read more...

Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a cloth, placed it against both their backs, and, walking backward, they covered their father's nakedness; their faces were turned the other way so that they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan; the lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers." (Genesis 9:22-25) Read more...

Years ago I enjoyed a wonderful radio program called "The United States of Los Angeles." This program featured unique neighborhoods and personalities from throughout the greater LA area. With hundreds of languages and dialects being spoken throughout Los Angeles, this radio show gave a fantastic perspective on the remarkable diversity of peoples and cultures that defines Los Angeles and, more broadly, the United States. This show gave me - at that time a newcomer to LA - a sense of the vibrant communities that make up this megalopolis. Read more...

Surely one of the most well known of the Torah’s stories involves Noah and the flood. A righteous man living in a lawless and violent age, Noah is commanded to build an ark and to gather representatives of all the species of animals into the ark so they can survive a flood that will wipe out errant humanity and allow mankind to begin anew through Noah. As the rain waters fall and the floodwaters storm, Noah, his family, and his herds are safe inside. Read more...