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28 09, 2010

Simhat Torah: The Rebirth of the Word

By Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD|2010-09-28T19:00:53-04:00September 28, 2010|

As we approach Simhat Torah and prepare to read of the death of Moses and the creation of the world, I always find myself experiencing a feeling of anticipation and even exhilaration, as if something extraordinary were about to happen.Â In one sense, all the prayers, introspection and celebration we have done all autumn have led us to this moment: the moment when we leap from the end of the end-the conclusion of Moses’ journey and the final words of the Torah-to the beginning of the beginning, when the world is born and the divine creative process unfolds before our eyes.Â Only the intense spiritual past-future scrubbing of the High Holidays, and the powerful ritual circles of Sukkot, can bring us to this moment which is both line and circle: the ongoing interpretation of the Torah across history, the eternal Read More >

28 09, 2010

Shemini Atzeret

By ahsilver|2010-09-28T18:59:26-04:00September 28, 2010|

The three pilgrimage festivals – Pesah, Shavuot and Sukkot – are mentioned several times in the Torah – in Parshiyot Mishpatim, Ki Tisa, Emor, Pinhas, and Re’eh.Â But it is only in two of these parshiyot – Emor and Pinhas – that the Torah refers to what we now know as Sh’mini Atzeret.Â In the former, we read only that “on the eighth day, you shall observe a sacred convocation and bring and offering by fire to the Lord; it is a solemn gathering and you shall not work at your occupations” (Lev. 23:36). In the latter, we read only that “On the eighth day you shall hold a solemn gathering [and] you shall not work at your occupations” (Deut. 29:35). This is followed by a description of the various offerings to be made.

Sh’mini Read More >

14 09, 2010

Yom Kippur

By ahsilver|2010-09-14T15:36:40-04:00September 14, 2010|

By Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein

Ashamnu, Bagadnu, gazalnu, dabarnu dophi ¦..

We beat our chests as we repeat this list of sins in our liturgy over and over again during Yom Kippur. It is an alef-bet listing of sins, said in the plural form, of things we might have done wrong. The rabbis felt that by reading the list collectively that no one would be embarrassed. By limited it to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alef-bet, the list would not go on and on. Still, there are years I want to rail against this. I am not that bad.

Immediately after Kol Nidre, the liturgy says Vayomer Adonai Selahti Kidvarekha, And the Lord said, I have pardoned you according to your word (Numbers 14:20). We are told that œFor on this day atonement shall be made for you to cleanse yourself of all your sins: you shall be clean before Adonai. (Leviticus Read More >

8 09, 2010

Rosh HaShanah

By ahsilver|2010-09-08T10:59:07-04:00September 8, 2010|

By Rabbi Katy Allen

Look in the mirror. You are unique, but your two sides are not so different from each other. Compare the patterns of the two sides of your face. Do you see the connection? Like every other human and myriads of other organisms you exhibit bilateral symmetry – your left and right sides are mirror images.

Now look around. Compare the patterns in yourself to the patterns in a cat or a squirrel. Do you see the connections? Compare the connection between the patterns in yourself and in the squirrel to the connection between the patterns in a butterfly and in a bee. Do you see those connections? And now compare the connections among all those patterns to the connections in the patterns in a maple leaf and an oak leaf compared to those in a turtle and a frog. Is Read More >

31 03, 2010

Pesah

By ahsilver|2010-03-31T19:10:12-04:00March 31, 2010|

Shabbat Hol HaMo’ed Pesah
By Margaret Klein

We’ve cleaned, cooked, celebrated. We’ve had seders that lasted until midnight. Now it is time to celebrate again. Shabbat in the middle of Passover. A double celebration. We don’t want to sound like the Israelites wandering around in the desert but we’re tired, so tired. Why did we do all this? Is this really what God requires or are we serving some other master? It is intriguing that the root for slave Ayin-Bet-Dalet is the same root for work, for the Temple service, for worship and for servant. Did the Israelites merely substitute one slavery for another’serving God? I don’t think so.

Then this week’s Torah portion comes. Moses has just found the Israelites dancing around the Golden Calf. He smashes the tablets. He is angry and tired. He wonders what all of this is for. God demands that Moses return up the mountain again. Moses protests and Read More >

7 10, 2009

Shemini Atzeret

By ahsilver|2009-10-07T15:34:34-04:00October 7, 2009|

A Meaning in the 21st Century
By Julius Rabinowitz

This coming Shabbat we celebrate the holiday of Shemini Atzeret, a one day holiday that seems to be lacking an identity to most American Jews. Biblically, a holiday in which we are to hold a “solemn gathering”, accompanied by the annual celebration of the “prayer for rain”-albeit intended for the desert land of Israel and not for the temperate climes and year-round rainfall experienced in the Northern Hemisphere where most Diaspora Jews live. And its main “drawing” power seems to be the inclusion of a Yizkor service, less than two weeks after we gathered in synagogue for the very same commemoration. Indeed, when one looks at the Biblical origins and rabbinic modifications of the holiday, its identity appears to be bound up in the previous Sukkot holiday and its seven day joyous observance, and a respite before yet another joyous celebration the next day for Read More >

1 10, 2009

Shabbat Sukkot

By Doug Alpert|2009-10-01T21:06:25-04:00October 1, 2009|

By Doug Alpert

We tend to apprehend the present Hag HaSukkot by placing it within the context of the annual agricultural cycle. The notion of “dwelling in booths” (Vayikra 23:42-43) was compelled at least in part by the need to not stray to far from the fields during harvest. We also tend to understand Sukkot within its role as one of the Shalosh
Regalim, the three pilgrimage festivals. While these two approaches to garnering greater understanding of the Hag still resonate in an appropriate way, I would suggest another means by which we can place Hag HaSukkot within our annual cycle of Jewish life.

As with much of life, we understand how we arrive at Sukkot by understanding from whence we came. Specifically, Sukkot serves as a vital jumping off point from Yom Kippur, Read More >

15 09, 2009

Rosh HaShanah

By ahsilver|2009-09-15T15:15:03-04:00September 15, 2009|

By Rabbi Dorit Edut

“Zokhreinu Lehayyim Melekh Hafetz Behayyim-Remember us that we may live, O Ruler Who delights in Life – V’Khotveynu B’Sefer Hahayyim Lema’ankha Elohim Hayim – Inscribe us in the Book of Life, for Your Sake, O Living God.”

These are the words of a special insertion in the High Holy Day Amidah. It probably dates from the post-Talmudic period and seems to have become part of our liturgy only after much debate. And yet there was such affinity for
these verses, especially during times when our lives were very threatened that this plea for life was sustained.

There was also another thread that was being preserved here, which refers to asking God to inscribe us for life in God’s Book of Life. The very first reference in the Torah to any such book comes in Exodus 32:32 when Moses asks God to forgive the Read More >

27 05, 2009

Shavuot

By ahsilver|2009-05-27T09:11:14-04:00May 27, 2009|

Standing at Sinai
By Rabbi Michael G. Kohn

For me, the festival of Shavuot is a riddle shrouded in mystery, wrapped in an enigma. Although it is fixed in our modern calendars as the sixth day of Sivan, no such date appears anywhere in the Torah. In parashat Pinhas, where the additional sacrifices for each of the special days – Shabbat, the Yamin Nora’im (Days of Awe) and the Shalosh Regalim (Three Pilgrimage Festivals) – are specified (Num. 28-29), it is the only one of the holidays and festivals which does not begin with (or even mention) the date of its observance.

In parashat Emor, where each of the special days of the calendar is described (Lev. 23), there is no similar description for Shavuot as we have come to know it. On Pesa Read More >

6 11, 2008

Yom Kippur

By ahsilver|2008-11-06T14:07:43-05:00November 6, 2008|

By Rabbi Katy Z. Allen

Yom Kippur means “the Day of Atonement,” but we can also think of this day as “the Day of Truth-Telling.” Our major spiritual task in life is to access our personal truths and connect them to universal truths, and then to have the courage to speak these truths with enough faith that we speak them not with defiance or defensiveness, but with profound humility. Yom Kippur can help us on this journey.

The Torah portion for Yom Kippur contains words such as avonot, pesha’im, chata’ot, tum’ot – sins, transgressions, iniquities, uncleanness. These words speak of our fear, anger, guilt, or other spiritual blocks to a freer sense of being and a better relationship with the Holy One of Blessing. The text describes an ancient ritual that, despite its foreignness to our modern sensibilities, can be read as a metaphor that, aliyah (individual section of the Torah reading) by aliyah, Read More >

All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

All shall unite to do God's will with an open heart.

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