Posted on February 10, 2023 by Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel As professional clergy, we tend to think robotically and uncritically about our faith. In some ways, atheists speak like biblical prophets; they challenge us to ask and demand we articulate what we ought to …

Order your copy of Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel's new book, A Shepherd's Song: Psalm 23 and the Shepherd Metaphor in Jewish Thought. Available now at Amazon.com!

Rabbi Michael Leo was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Bay Area. He is the child of a Holocaust survivor; my father, Leo Samuel (z”l ) descended from a long line of rabbis who lived in a part of Europe that used to be part of Czechoslovakia.

Our rabbi, Dr. Michael Leo Samuel, provides spiritual leadership for our progressive congregation, which is affiliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. He brings Shabbat and holiday services to life with engaging music and invigorating Torah study.

Nov 19, 2024 · My personal Substack aims to make Judaism more appealing to people from a variety of religious backgrounds and faiths. My goal is to expand everyone's appreciation of our ancestral faith and show how the great debates of the past are still relevent.

Growing up in a Reform Jewish home, Michael Leo Samuel had been a fan of Philo’s since his early teenage years. His passion for reading Jewish texts eventually led to Samuel being ordained through the Lubavitcher (Chabad) movement, and then going on to serve as a Hebrew school teacher and a pulpit rabbi in Modern Orthodox and Conservative ...

My understanding of idol worship is when human creations or people themselves replace G-d and/or are worshiped as a god, this is idol worship. How do rabbis view idols in the modern sense? What does it mean to avoid worshiping idols? …

Full archive of all the posts from Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel's Substack.