Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer

 This is NOT a political podcast in the sense of promoting a political agenda. It's about a very serious threat to our democracy in general and to us Jews in particular. To those who say "It can't happen here," the fact is that it has already begun to happen here and the midterms may be our best chance of stopping it before it is too late.  Support the show

There is nothing antiquated or embarrassing about Sukkot or its rituals. In fact, in a world beset by repeating environmental disasters caused by global warming, it may well be the most significant Jewish observance with regard to the natural world we live in. Support the show

This week's episode completes the series on many of the matters we must be concerned  with--and that we must atone for if we failed to act on these concerns in 5782--in approaching the High Holy Days and Yom Kippur especially. Women's rights...workers' rights...issues involving the migrant wave coming across the Southern U.S. border...how business affairs must be conducted...and so...

The Repentance Clock is ticking. The High Holy Days are now just over four weeks away! This is the second of three episodes designed to help us prepare for making the "accounting of our souls" that the 10 days from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur are all about. This episode focuses on the heavy emphasis the Torah places on our responsibilities towards the poor and the disadvantaged, esp...

The High Holy Days are just over six weeks away! The next three episodes will help us prepare for making the "accounting of our souls" that is the task of the 10 days from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur. This is part 1. Part 2 is in two weeks. Support the show

The absolutely saddest day on the Jewish calendar is just over a week away, and will be ignored by most Jews. Sad day though it is, it actually has a very uplifting message--and it's that message that makes it a day we should never ignore. Support the show

This Saturday evening, we begin a 21-day period of increasingly mournful restrictions. In all, there are 72 mournful days on the Jewish calendar.  That averages out each year to one out of every five days on the secular calendar. Five of these days are fast days (such as the one this coming Sunday). But should these days even be there? And do they really represent the tragedies of the past that ar...

Be forewarned: Three decisions by the Supreme Court in the last 10 days--including knocking down Roe v Wade--signal that the current conservative majority is in lockstep with the extreme evangelical right's efforts to do away with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and turn America into a right-wing Christian nation. They're getting close to accomplishing that and here'...

Climate change catastrophes abound. Wildfires, droughts, floods, and warnings about another above-average hurricane season are all attributed to climate change. The climate IS changing, and not for the better. What isn’t changing is what we’re doing about it. (Then again, Marjorie Taylor Greene says all this carbon in the atmosphere is really good for us.) Scientists have been warning us about all...

When the Supreme Court's approval rating drops from 58 percent a year ago to 40 percent today--the lowest it's ever been---you know there's a problem. That problem is that the court has become politicized to a point where people no longer trust it to safeguard our rights. It goes about making decisions based on a specious philosophy when it should be approaching cases the way Judais...

We need to be very afraid of those who promote "protecting" the Second Amendment judging by the scary "armed rebellion" talk coming from elected officials, no less. We also need to understand what the amendment ACTUALLY says and why the right--including the conservative Supreme Court majority--have it all wrong. Even the Supreme Court before 2008 said how wrong the right is. Su...

The values this nation was founded on are the values the Torah teaches us to cherish. It was for these values that nearly 1.3 million people gave their lives from 1776 until today. But are those the values America holds dear today? Or did those nearly 1.3 million martyrs die for nothing? Support the show

What you’ll hear in this episode may surprise many of you and, hopefully, enrage all of you. There’s a lot of attention being paid right now to the battle over a woman’s right to an abortion, but that is symptomatic of a much larger problem in the U.S.: The lack of respect and concern this country has for mothers which, given the consequences you’ll hear about, is far more outrageous than what wom...

As you may recall from previous episodes, what Jewish law has ro say about abortion is not easily explained.  But the bottom line is that however one interprets Jewish law, there is no absolute ban and, more to the point, any effort by government to interfere with abortion rights is interfering with our freedom of religion. Support the show

Actually, it has a great deal to teach us, both through the stories it tells and the laws it puts forth. We very much need to absorb those lessons into our lives today. Support the show

This is part 2 of Putting the Exodus into the context of history. I'm putting it out a bit earlier than usual and I hope it will make your Passover even more meaningful. Enjoy the chag! Support the show

What do you get when you double up on Episode # 46? Episode # 92! I didn't plan it that way, but it's how it worked out. This is a somewhat modified rebroadcast of Episode # 46, which was the first of two pre-Passover episodes explaining how the Exodus fits into Egyptian history, something so many scholars insist otherwise. Seriously, they are way off base! Support the show

Okay, so which side are you on? Was Will Smith right in slapping Chris Rock or not? And who is really to blame for what happened Sunday night at the Oscars? You may be surprised at the answer I give. Jewish law, of course, has much to say about how Smith should have responded, the nature of insult comedy, and how this all reflects on our society. And I REALLY WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR COMMENTS TO AL...

If anyone ever told that I would publicly condemn anything the American Israel Public Affairs Committee did, I would have called that person crazy.  And yet, that is what I am doing in this episode because AIPAC has managed to give the Jew-hating far right in the United States, and the anti-Israel pro-Palestinian lobby all the ammunition they need to "prove" that we American Jews are dis...

M’gillat Esther, the Scroll of Esther, is the centerpiece of our Purim festivities—but did this story really happen? Did it take place in Persia, or is it wearing its own Purim costume, Persian in appearance but, say, Egyptian in reality? Why were our Sages so reluctant to have the story written down, and to inaugurate Purim itself? And did they first have to “clean up” its heroes’ acts because th...

In January, I used the Colleyville, Texas, hostage-taking, as the basis for a podcast on anti-Semitism. Now here I am doing another one just a few weeks later. Recent events, though, make taking another look necessary. These events include two incidents coming a week apart inside the Kentucky legislature, a hate-filled national conference that attracted politicians and policymakers, a university f...

The end is near, seriously, at least according to a panel of the world's climatologists and other scientists. Either we fix things NOW and in a transformative way (the report's words), or this world of ours and everyone in it are in for a really bad time. Really bad time, Support the show

The politicians say it's time to let our masks down. They follow the polls. The scientists say not yet. They follow the evidence, and especially the appearance of hard-to-detect new strain dubbed the Stealth Variant. It is showing up all around the world. One in five people globally is already infected. The Torah portions we've been reading and will continue to read through next week hav...

The level of political discourse here has sunk so low that it poses a threat to American democracy. A member of Congress cheers a former president for saying data collectors should be executed. Another member urges people to send their friends and family members into "liberal frenzies" when they talk about injustice. A senator wants truckers to block our roads even if it will result in h...

Calling Israel an apartheid state is wrong on several levels. This podcast is focused, though, on the potential danger to the world if the nations of the world cut off all contact with it. Just listen to what Israel has given to the world since just this last December! Support the show