Israel Matzav: 'God' tells the Rabbis what to discuss in their High Holiday sermons

'God' tells the Rabbis what to discuss in their High Holiday sermons

A couple of my favorite bloggers were livid on Wednesday because President Obama had a conference call conversation with about 1000 rabbis in which he made the outrageous statement that "we are God's partners in matters of life and death." Perhaps they would be even angrier if they knew what the conference call was about. Rick Richman fills in the details.

Yesterday, President Obama participated in a conference call with about 1,000 rabbis in anticipation of the High Holy Days next month—and the sermons the rabbis will give. The purpose of the call was, apparently, to urge the rabbis to support ObamaCare, or something like it, from the pulpit.

Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times writes that the call was left off the Obama schedule—an interesting note, she writes, on “Obama White House selective transparency.” [Where have we seen that before? CiJ] Jodi Kantor of the New York Times cites a participant’s tweet that the president told the rabbis “I am going to need your help.”

The call was a joint effort of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), the Rabbinical Assembly, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, coordinated by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. The URJ invitation read, in part, as follows:

Read All at :

Israel Matzav: 'God' tells the Rabbis what to discuss in their High Holiday sermons