An award-winning speaker, popular teacher, and experienced officiant.
“Man can alter his life by changing his thinking”
~ William James
An award-winning speaker, popular teacher, and experienced officiant.
“Man can alter his life by changing his thinking”
~ William James
Rabbinic Services
Rabbi Allen is ready to serve your needs in a variety of capacities. He is an award-winning speaker, popular teacher, and experienced officiant.
Speaker
Teacher
Officiant
Rabbi Allen is pleased to meet with you to discuss officiating at your wedding. With the experience of officiating at more than four hundred weddings, Rabbi Allen can customize each …
Books
In addition to the scholarly articles he has contributed to peer reviewed publications, Rabbi Allen has edited two books on Jewish law and co-written along with Harvey Haber a book of introductory prayers for various occasions. Rabbi Allen has also made a significant contribution to the understanding of Jewish theology, philosophy, history, and religious practice through his books.
Thinking About Good And Evil: Jewish Views From Antiquity To Modernity
The most comprehensive book on the topic, Thinking about Good and Evil traces the most salient Jewish ideas about why innocent people seem to suffer, why evil individuals seem to prosper, and God’s role in such matters of (in)justice, from antiquity to the present.
Outlook & Insights
Facing Life’s End – VaYelekh 5783
The medieval commentators are in disagreement. When Moses declares that “I cannot come and go” (Deuteronomy 31:2), Rabbi Ovadiah Seforno comments that Moses’ declaration is an admission that in old...
Self-Assurance – Nitzavim 5782
Before he dies, Moses assures the people Israel that “Surely the instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond your reach” (Deuteronomy 30:11). He...
Immediately, If Not Sooner – Ki Tavo 5782
In one of his final addresses to the assembled people of Israel, Moses tells them: “When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it,...
The Brutality of Warfare – Ki Tetze 5782
Perhaps no verse in the Torah has inflamed the sensibilities of modern readers as Deuteronomy 25:19 that calls upon the Israelites to erase every last Amalekite. True, the Amalekites were cruel and...
Filtering Sensory Input – Shoftim 5782
British philosophy of the eighteenth century was characterized by an ongoing dispute between the rationalists and the sentimentalists. Rationalists believed that human judgment and morality is...
For a Pig, It’s Kosher – Re’eh 5782
One of the most influential authorities at the end of the nineteenth century was Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin (1816-1893), known by his acronym, NeTziV. As a prominent Lithuanian religious...