Rabbi Reuven Bulka
Rabbi Dr. Reuven Bulka has served as Rabbi of the Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa, Ontario since 1967, and is presently Rabbi Emeritus. He was the host of the weekly Radio call-in program Sunday Night with Rabbi Bulka (CFRA) since 1994 and a regular columnist in The Ottawa Citizen’s Ask the Religion Experts feature since 1995.
Bio last updated June 17th, 2021.
Articles by Rabbi Reuven Bulka
A Meeting Place of Meaning
By Rabbi Reuven Bulka
April 24, 2020
Rabbi Reuven Bulka reminds us that the very search for meaning in crises such as the current pandemic gives expression to our shared humanity.
The question itself has many variations, such as, “Why is God doing this to us?” or the more theologically complicated question-challenge, “How could a caring God do this?” – the implication clearly being that there is no God At the risk of overgeneralization, one could suggest that that for the believer, there is an answer, and for the non-believer, there is no question
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Passing Over Difference
Rabbi Reuven Bulka
April 3, 2020
Rabbi Reuven Bulka says no one celebrating Passover can be indifferent to the difference the COVID-19 crisis will bring. What matters, though, is what endures.
This year Passover will be different because our thoughts will be with the thousands upon thousands who are mourning the tragic loss of loved ones to the COVID-19 plague This year, our collective exclamation is, “How different is this night from the other Passover nights that were themselves inheren...
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Is Human Dignity Enough?
Rabbi Reuven Bulka
February 6, 2020
Rabbi Reuven Bulka examines a recent Cardus Religious Freedom report on human dignity, suggesting that there may be more to the question surrounding the freedom to make personal choices.
Canada case, the authors reach the conclusion that “For many today, dignity concerns the freedom to make personal choices, not the inherent value of human life As an aside, a more accurate but less resonant term in which to frame this issue might be “human sanctity,” the sanctity of human life Any i...
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Canada At Its Best
Rabbi Reuven Bulka
July 31, 2019
Rabbi Reuven Bulka praises the integrity and wisdom of all sides in a legal bid to accommodate a Jewish candidate’s religious convictions by changing the federal election date.
Stephane Perrault, Canada's Chief Electoral Officer, was directed by the Federal Court to take a second look at the voting date, after an application for judicial review that was filed by Chani Aryeh-Bain, a candidate in the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence, and Ira Walfish, a voter in York Centr...
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When Law Makes Room for Reality
Rabbi Reuven Bulka
April 30, 2019
Horrendous violent attacks make these seem perilous times for religious believers, but as Rabbi Reuven Bulka recently told a Cardus Religious Freedom Institute conference, the intersection of Canadian and Jewish Halachic law is often an example of unbelievably good news.
It corroborated what people whom I have spoken to, especially in CIJA, and with its predecessor, the Canadian Jewish Congress, both deeply involved in Halacha-related issues, have observed: often these matters get resolved through quiet diplomacy, which works most of the time At the time this was a ...
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Better News for Canadian Jews
Rabbi Reuven Bulka
April 17, 2019
As Passover arrives, an Environics survey shows Canada’s Jewish community is faring much better than its U.S. counterpart in number of ways. But as Ottawa’s Rabbi Reuven Bulka cautions, doing better doesn’t automatically mean doing well.
It is clear that community cohesiveness is a major factor in Canadian Jewish life, as is Canadian exceptionalism, a term coined by the authors of the study The Canadian rate is 23 per cent; for the Jewish community in the U Consider Toronto, where 67 per cent of those who attended nine years of day...
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Do 11 Good Things
Hannah Marazzi with Rabbi Reuven Bulka
October 31, 2018
Rabbi Reuven Bulka, prolific writer, communicator and leader in the Jewish community, talks to Convivium’s Hannah Marazzi about the impact of the Pittsburgh synagogue murders and how to honour the 11 people killed at prayer.
We can control that by our attitudes, by saying not only are we condemning the anti-Semitism that kills people but also the anti-Semitism that, in fact, attacks people and insults them, and ridicules them and reviles them and makes them seem repulsive to the community at large Hannah Marazzi: When d...