וְיֵעָשׂוּ כֻלָּם אֲגֻדָּה אֶחָת לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם

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

וְיֵעָשׂוּ כֻלָּם אֲגֻדָּה אֶחָת לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם

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

Parashat Vayeirah

Parashat Vayeirah

Vayeirah
Hazzan Marcia Lane

Let me just say, straight off, that choosing one or other episode from this week’s parashah, like all the parshiyot of the book of Genesis, is a tricky proposition. Shall I address the story of Abraham and Sarah and their angelic visitors, but ignore the Akedah, the binding of Isaac? For synagogues that follow the triennial reading of the Torah, the big event this week will be the destruction of Sodom and Gemorrah, but we will also read about the king of Gerar, Avimelech, and how he took Sarah into his household, thinking that she was Abraham’s sister. The banishment of Hagar and Ishmael? You can see the problem here; the Torah portion is simply too good. Too packed with juicy stories. But there is a thread that connects these episodes. Our Torah portion introduces two important and inter-connected mitzvot (commandments): bikkur holim (visiting the sick) and hakhnasat Read More >

By |2014-11-05T12:49:13-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Parashat Lekh-Lekha

Lekh-Lekha
Cantor Sandy Horowitz

Journeys are complicated. Fraught with the unexpected, they can bring out one’s best and worst qualities. But the beginning — the moment of outset — can be a moment of perfection and purity. Consider the newborn, or a decision to embark on a new career, or those first steps of a backpacking trip.

Such a moment opens this week’s Torah portion.

“And God said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.'”….”Vayelekh Avram” – “and Abram went forth” (Genesis 12:1-2, 4).

If there was hesitation, we don’t read about it. If Sarai gave him a hard time about leaving, that was kept between the two of them. Without regard to what came before Read More >

By |2014-11-05T12:13:37-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Parashat Noah

Parashat Noah: Balancing Two Promises
Rabbi Jill Hammer

In Parashat Noah, God commands Noah to build an ark so that his descendants may survive the flood that God is bringing upon the earth. Noah’s role, according to the biblical text, is as a partner in covenant with God: “I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark…” Some midrashim emphasize a second aspect of Noah’s role: as a caretaker of animal diversity. In Genesis Rabbah 19:5, Noah runs from animal to animal to provide each one with the food it needs, to the extent that Noah does not sleep the entire time he is on the ark. The phoenix is so distressed at Noah’s hard work that it does not ask for anything to eat (and is rewarded with eternal life for its empathy).

Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, the rabbi and author, adds beautifully to this midrashic thread. In her book Noah’s Read More >

By |2014-11-05T12:06:52-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Parashat Bereishit

Overture: Our Place in God’s Purposive World
Rabbi Len Levin

“In the beginning God created heavens and earth” (older translation)

 or

“When God began to create the heavens and the earth
— the earth being chaos-shmaos (Yochanan Muffs’ paraphrase of tohu va-vohu
with darkness over the face of the deep
and the spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters —
God said, Let there be light,
And there was light.

Any way you translate it, it is a fitting opening to the most formative book in the world. Like a classic overture, the beginning chapters of Genesis articulate the themes that will reverberate through the rest of the Torah as well as the historical and prophetic writings, the psalms, and the other components of the Bible. In broad strokes, it lays out the important elements of the biblical world view:

  • The world is ordered by God’s creative plan.
  • Everything in the world — skies, seas, land, Read More >
By |2014-11-05T12:05:31-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Parashat Hukkat

Hukkat
Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky

This week’s parashah contains a somewhat strange description of what happened to the Children of Israel after they complained to God and Moses about their current precarious state. God’s response was to send poisonous serpents as a plague among the people. The people then come to Moses, admitted their fault, and God proceeded to tell Moses the cure, a serpent made of bronze.

“From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and Read More >

By |2014-11-05T12:01:03-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Parashat Korah

Korah
Rabbi Len Levin

The Question of Freedom

“For the congregation are all holy, and Adonai is among them; and why do you exalt yourselves over the congregation of Adonai?”
(argument of Korah, Numbers 16:3)

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
(American Declaration of Independence)

In 1976, Shabbat Korah came out on July 3, the eve of the United States bicentennial. I was attending a havurah retreat, and to stimulate discussion and reflection I composed a manifesto of the Kommunistishe Organisatzion fun Revolutioneren Anarchisten und Hard-hats (KORAH), which transposed Korah’s political agenda into modern revolutionary jargon and ended: “To your tents, O Israel! You have nothing to lose but your slave mentality.” It was conceived tongue-in-cheek but was intended to raise the serious questions: What, if anything, Read More >

By |2014-11-05T11:59:30-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Parashat Shelah

Shelah
Rabbi Isaac Mann

The opening Rashi of this week’s Parashah (Numbers 13:2) addresses himself to the question of what is the connection between the story of the twelve spies sent by Moses to scout out the Land of Canaan and the end of the previous sedra (Beha’alotkha), which recounts the incident of Miriam speaking against her brother Moses. In answer to this question, Rashi quotes the Midrash that explains the connection on the basis of both stories involving speaking ill of someone or something, or what we would call lashon ha-ra. In Rashi’s words – “…for she [Miriam] was punished for speaking ill of her brother, and these wicked people [ten spies] saw it [the punishment meted out to Miriam] and didn’t take it to heart.” In other words, the ten spies who claimed that the Israelites would not be able to conquer the Land and disparaged it as well (“a land that devours its inhabitants” – Read More >
By |2014-11-05T11:31:11-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Shavuot

Shavuot-Meditation on the Mountain

Rabbi Jill Hammer

 

1. “The Eternal called to him from the mountain, saying: ‘Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob, and speak to the children of Israel: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagle’s wings and brought you to me.'”

Exodus 19:3-4

Close your eyes and pay attention to your breath. As you sit in meditation, imagine climbing on the back of a great bird and being lifted on the wings of a great bird, so that you can see the world from high above. What do you see? What does it feel like to be carried by this winged presence? What perspective do you gain from high in the air? What does this new vision of the world ask of you?

Now, imagine that, from Read More >

By |2014-11-05T11:24:52-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Parashat Bemidbar

Bemidbar
Hazan Marcia Lane

Where Am I? (or “Stuck in the Middle Again!”)

The fourth book of the Torah, Bemidbar, begins with one of those statements that sounds, at least to me, as if it was being narrated by Charlton Heston.

“The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month of the second year, after they came out of the land of Egypt, saying: Take a census ….”  (Num. 1:1-2)

It’s a cinematic moment. The entire nation (together with all the hangers-on) have been camped at the foot of the mountain, growing and weaving and building all the elements of the mishkan– the movable sacred space – and learning the necessary laws for what will be their life as an independent nation, living in its own land. For two years and one month the people have been sojourning here, in the wilderness of Sinai, at the Read More >
By |2014-11-05T11:21:59-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Parashat Behukotai

Beukotai
Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky

The Ramban (Moses Nachmanides, Spain/1194-1270) makes a number of comments on this week’s parashah that relate to miracles and medicine, in other words, the relationship between trust in God and human initiated healing. It is worth remembering that not only was the Ramban a Biblical and Talmudic commentator, but he was also a physician.

“In general then, when Israel is in perfect [accord with G-d], constituting a large number, their affairs are not conducted at all by the natural order of things, neither in connection with themselves, nor with reference to their Land, neither collectively nor individually, for G-d blesses their bread and their water, and removes sickness from their midst, so that they do not need a physician and do not have to observe any of the rules of medicine. just as He said, “for I am the Eternal that healeth thee.” (Exodus 15:26) And so did the righteous Read More >

By |2014-11-05T11:19:56-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Parashat Behar

Behar
Rabbi Len Levin

All Persons Free under God

“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” (Leviticus 25:10, inscription on the Liberty Bell)

“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is Mine, for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.” (Leviticus 25:23, motto of the Jewish National Fund)

“For they are My servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as bondmen.” (Leviticus 25:42)
The liberation from Egyptian slavery, which we celebrated a few weeks ago during Passover, marked the beginning of a new regime of liberty for ancient Israel. But in the modern world, the spirit of freedom in the pages of Israel’s Bible served as an inspiration for the founders of the American Republic, and more recently for Zionism and the State of Israel.

The code of civil laws starting in Exodus Chapter 21 Read More >

By |2014-11-05T11:17:29-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Parashat Emor

Emor
Rabbi Isaac Mann

The beginning of this week’s Torah portion is in a sense a continuation of last week’s, which dealt with the tenets of kedushah (holiness) that are incumbent upon all Israelites. In Emor the Torah begins with the specific strictures that apply only to the kohanim (the priests of Israel) due to their added state of holiness.

The Talmud (Yevamot 114a) takes note of the unusual wording of the first verse in this parashah (Lev. 21:1)  –  “G-d said to Moses ‘Say (emor) to the kohanim, the sons of Aaron, and say to them (ve’amarta aleihem) do not defile yourself by coming into contact with the dead…” The duplication apparent in this verse (see Rashi and Siftei Hakhamim ad loc.), which rabbinic interpretation generally eschews, is interpreted by the Rabbis as a warning to the priests – and by extension to everyone else – not to cause their offspring to violate the laws of the Torah. Thus, the first emor is directed to the Read More >

By |2014-11-05T11:15:05-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Parashat Kedoshim

Kedoshim
Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky
Holiness, kedushah, abounds in this week’s parashah. The Children of Israel are commanded to be holy (Lev. 19:2; 20:7), God is described as being holy (ibid.), and God is also described as sanctifying Israel (Lev. 20:8). Holiness is a concept that invokes strong religious emotion and it is empowering, but holiness also has the potential to be misused. Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who was an Israeli scientist and philosopher, was very weary of the potential abuse of holiness as a formative concept in our religious lives. According to him, only God is holy. He wrote the following as a warning against what he felt were the dangers of attributing holiness to people, historical events, actions, objects, and places:
“One expression of the transformation of faith into idolatry is to be found in the distortion of the concept of holiness. The recognition that holiness is an attribute of God and is Read More >
By |2014-11-05T11:12:30-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Passover

What’s in a Name?
Hazzan Marcia Lane

Like all three pilgrimage festivals, Passover has several names. It’s called Hag ha-Pesah, the ‘passing-over’ holiday, in Exodus 12:11 and in several other places in the Torah. That name refers to the fact that when the Angel of Death comes to kill the firstborn in the land of Egypt, he skips, passes over, the houses of the Israelites which are marked with blood on the doorposts. In acknowledgement of the connection of the holiday to the cycle of the agricultural year, it’s also called Hag ha-Aviv, the Springtime festival, alluded to in Deuteronomy 16:1.

It seems obvious that this holiday, during which we are prohibited from consuming or even possessing hametz, leavened foods, should also be called Hag ha-Matzot, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That name occurs in Exodus 12:8 and in several other places. The Read More >

By |2014-11-05T11:10:16-05:00November 5, 2014|
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Parashat Aharei Mot

Aharei Mot
Jerome Chanes

Chapter 17 of Sefer Sh’mot (the Book of Exodus) begins by recalling the deaths of Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Avihu. The parashah thence goes into the details of the behavior of the person who is about to enter the sacred precincts of the Mishkan (tabernacle) or the Temple, God’s house. The description of the service in the parashah is conventionally read as preparation for entering the sacred precincts, the kodesh ha-kodoshim, on Yom HaKippurim, but there is nothing in the text to indicate that this is so. More about this question below.

Why are the rules of the kodesh ha-kodoshim preceded by the comment about the death of Aaron’s sons? What do we learn from the proximity of the two texts? In the initial story of the death of Aaron’s sons, the reason given is that they “brought strange fire”, whatever that means. In our parashah, the reason given Read More >

By |2014-04-10T08:37:58-04:00April 10, 2014|
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Parashat Metzora

Embracing the Marginalized
A Dvar Torah for Parashat Metzora
By Len Levin
“This shall be the ritual for a leper on the day that he is to be purified.” (Leviticus 14:2)
“Once leprosy had gone, and the figure of the leper was no more than a distant memory, these structures [the medieval European leprosaria or lazar-houses] still remained. The game of exclusion would be played again, often in these same places, in an oddly similar fashion two or three centuries later. The role of the leper was to be played by the poor and by the vagrant, by prisoners and by the ‘alienated’ [i.e., the insane], and the sort of salvation at stake for both parties in this game of exclusion is the matter of this study.” ― Michel Foucault, History of Madness

We are social beings. As such, we create hierarchies. Even Read More >
By |2014-03-30T12:41:55-04:00March 30, 2014|
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Parashat Tazria

This week’s Torah portion, Tazria, begins with laws pertaining to the ritual cleanness or uncleanness of a woman who just gave birth and then proceeds to deal at length with the same ritual issues regarding someone with tzara’at (often mistranslated as leprosy). That this parashah follows on the heels of Shemini, which largely deals with the cleanness or uncleanness (more commonly referred to as laws of kashrut) of various species of animals calls forth the attention of the Midrash.
In a well-known statement attributed to R. Simlai found in the Midrash Rabbah (quoted by Rashi to Lev. 12:2), he remarks on the order of the above two Torah portions. Instead of dealing first with laws pertaining to the ritual status of man/woman and then that of the animal kingdom, the Torah inverts the order and seems to give priority to the latter over the former.  R. Simlai resolves this “illogical” sequence by referencing ma’aseh bereishit (Creation) – “Just as the creation of man took Read More >
By |2014-03-27T00:13:07-04:00March 27, 2014|
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Parashat Shemini-Shabbat Parah

This Shabbat, Shabbat Parah, is the third of the special Shabbatot that are observed from before Purim, beginning with Shabbat Shekalim, and continuing through the Shabbat before Rosh Hodesh Nisan, Shabbat ha-Hodesh. This week’s special maftir Torah reading is about the Parah Adumah, the Red Heifer. This section of the Torah is read because the use of the Red Heifer’s ashes was a necessary step in the process of purification before the offering of the Korban Pesah, the Paschal offering. The meaning of the Red Heifer has challenged commentators and interpreters since late antiquity. The following midrash addresses the meaning of the Red Heifer, contrasting the explanation that was given by a rabbi sage from the first century CE to a Gentile with the explanation that he gave to his students. Raising the question of whether we should tailor our teachings and opinions to different audiences.

A gentile asked Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, saying Read More >

By |2014-03-18T10:20:07-04:00March 18, 2014|
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Purim

The Faces of Purim: A Journey
Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD

Cursed be Haman who sought to destroy me; blessed be Mordechai the Jew. Cursed be Zeresh the wife of the one who terrified me;
blessed be Esther for my sake. Cursed be all the wicked; blessed be all the righteous; and may Charvonah also be remembered for good.
Shoshanat Yaakov

Rabbah said: A person must get drunk on Purim until he does not know the difference between “blessed is Mordechai” and “cursed is Haman.”
Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 7b

On Purim, Jews all over the world will dress in costume and hear a ceremonial reading of the book of Esther accompanied by merriment and noisemaking to blot out the name of Haman. They will send presents of food to one another, give gifts to the poor, make a Purim feast, and make fun of traditions and sacred texts. This rite of spring gives us a chance to break out, to Read More >

By |2014-03-09T17:38:10-04:00March 9, 2014|
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Parashat VaYikra

Give it up!

Harold Ramis, the actor/director/screenwriter of Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, just died. May his memory be for a blessing. His movies treat the absurd with earnest seriousness. They are works of comic genius. While discussing Groundhog Day he likened the experience of watching the movie with reading Torah.

The film is the film; It does not change…. But we are different each year, each time we see it…. It’s like Torah. Every year, every Jew all over the world reads the Torah. We start it on the same day, we read the exact same section each week as every Jew around the world. But it’s different each year. I mean, the Torah is the Torah. It hasn’t changed. But we’ve changed.

This week we begin the book of Vayikra, the central book of the Torah. Most of this book depicts a world that simply doesn’t exist anymore, a world of Read More >

By |2014-03-03T23:15:39-05:00March 3, 2014|
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Parashat Pekudei

This week’s parashah continues the detailed description of the different components of the tabernacle, its vessels, and the priestly vestaments. An interesting theme within Jewish interpretation is the parallel drawn between the Tabernacle, the Holy Temple, and the universe. The following sources trace this idea over a period of a thousand years. They begin with Philo, who was born in the first century before the common era, and end with a Kabbalistic text from the Middle Ages. They all understand the Tabernacle or the Temple to correspond to something greater than their component parts, whether it is the celestial beings of the heavens or humanity itself.

Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE-50 CE):

The highest, and in the truest sense the holy, temple of God is, as we must believe, the whole universe, having for its sanctuary the most sacred part of all existence, (namely) heaven; for its offerings, the stars; for its priests, the Read More >

By |2014-02-24T22:58:13-05:00February 24, 2014|
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VaYakhel

Prayer, Shabbat and Halakha: The Portable Mishkan
A Dvar Torah for VaYakhel

In his essay “Halakha and Agada” the modern Hebrew poet Hayyim Nachman Bialik compares the structure of Jewish observance to a cathedral. “Halakha is a creative process. It is the supreme form of art — the art of life and of living. The creations of Halakha grow little by little, piece by piece, out of all the stream of human life and action, till in the end the fragments add up to a single total, and produce a single form. Halakha is the master-art that has shaped and trained a whole nation, and every line that it has graven on the nation’s soul has been inspired by a supreme wisdom which sees the end in the beginning.” (Bialik, Revealment and Concealment, Ibis Editions, 2000, 49–50)

I have earlier expressed in this forum how — in Abraham J. Heschel’s felicitous formulation — classical Read More >

By |2014-02-16T16:21:40-05:00February 16, 2014|
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Ki-Tissa

Parashat Ki-Tissa
Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky

“The LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely.” (Exodus 32:7)

When the Children of Israel worshipped the Golden Calf, Moses was confronted with one of the greatest challenges to his role as leader of the people. God laid part of the blame on Moses’s shoulders. “Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely.” It is “your people” who have acted perversely, not “the people.” They didn’t just leave Egypt, you brought them out of Egypt. The following midrash addresses how a leader should react when he or she is faced with a crisis. According to this midrash, leaders should not remain aloof and above the people, rather, they must “go down” from their greatness. While it may be easier for a leader who is Read More >

By |2014-02-13T12:08:17-05:00February 13, 2014|
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Tetsaveh

Parashat Tetsaveh
Rabbi Isaac Mann

Thoughts on Parashat Tetzaveh

This week’s Torah reading, Parashat Tetzaveh, consists primarily of two parts – (1) a description of the priestly garments to be worn during the service in the Tabernacle and (2) detailed instructions to Moses on initiating Aaron and his sons into priestly service, involving mostly various sacrifices to be offered during a seven-day period. However, at the beginning of this parashah there is a two-verse instruction regarding the preparation of pure olive oil for the menorah that stood in the Tabernacle and its lighting by Aaron and his descendants, and at the end of the parashah we have instructions for the building of the altar made of gold that was to be used only for incense (mizbeah ha-ketoret) and that stood inside the Tabernacle.

The opening and ending both seem out of place, especially the initial verses regarding the olive oil preparation and menorah lighting. Indeed, Abravanel (a famous 15th century Spanish Read More >

By |2014-02-13T12:06:48-05:00February 13, 2014|
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Terumah

Parashat Terumah
Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky

This week’s parashah begins with God saying to Moses that he should speak to the Children of Israel and to ask them to bring gifts, “Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him.” (Exodus 25:2) The formulation of God’s command to Moses in the original Hebrew is “va-yikhu li terumah.” In most of the instances in the Bible when there is a description of bringing terumah, the word “va-yikhu” is not used, rather, a different word such as “va-yarimu” is used.
This irregular use of the word “va-yikhu” stimulated the midrash to try and understand why this word was used. The answer was found in a connection between the word “va-yikhu” and the word “lekah” that has the identical root, a word that is sometimes understood to refer to Torah. The midrash below expands upon that connection and offers a profound explanation Read More >
By |2014-02-13T12:04:39-05:00February 13, 2014|
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Mishpatim

Parashat Mishpatim
Hazzan Marcia Lane

Not in Heaven 

In the Talmud, Bava Metzia 58b-59b, there is a famous story of a discussion concerning the kashrut, the ritual purity, of an oven. The majority of rabbis rule in one direction, but Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus consistently rules in the other direction. He calls upon a carob tree, and on a stream, and even on the walls of the school, and they behave in supernatural ways in order to attest to the correctness of his ruling. Finally, Rabbi Eliezer calls for a heavenly voice to confirm his judgement, and when it does, albeit on behalf of the majority, Rabbi Yehoshua answers the voice by saying famously, “It is not in heaven!” That is, the adjudication of this dispute is not a matter for God to decide. People, fallible though we may be, have the final say in adjudicating on earthly matters.

It would seem reasonable to insist that concerning speed Read More >

By |2014-02-13T12:03:01-05:00February 13, 2014|
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Yitro

Parashat Yitro
Rabbi Jill Hammer

Revelations: Three Kavvanot for Parashat Yitro

1.

“Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, brought Moses’s sons and wife to him in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God…When Moses’s father-in-law saw everything he was doing for the people, he said: “What is this that you are doing to the people?” Exodus 18:6
I am the old one
listen to me
before you break yourself against the evenings

before you throw yourself against the mornings

don’t listen to the voice that says

carry the mountain on your back

you will find truth
not in the strong hand
but in the outstretched arms of others
you will find peace
not in parting the sea
but in crossing the soul’s river
you will find love

not in greatness but in weakness

I have come a long way
through the years of your life
through the hours of your regret
through the songs of your kinfolk
through the nights of your liberation

to tell you

lay down the bones of the world

they were never yours

2.

“They came to the wilderness Read More >
By |2014-02-13T12:01:18-05:00February 13, 2014|
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Beshalah

Parashat Beshalah
Rabbi Len Levin

Miracles, Creation, Evolution
I am writing this on the eve of a vacation trip to the Galapagos. By the time you read this, I will have been there and be on my way back home.
I am in a feverish sense of anticipation. When Charles Darwin, as a young man, visited the Galapagos Islands in 1835, his observation of the variation of related species from one island to the next sparked his imagination to conceive of his theory of evolution of the species through natural selection. I hope to recapture some of his thrill of discovery, and pray that the encounter may lead me to some new insights of my own.
The rabbis of the Talmudic period were no strangers to the issues that science poses for religion. The Stoic philosophy that was popular among the educated classes of the Roman period postulated a regular natural order that Read More >
By |2014-02-13T11:59:21-05:00February 13, 2014|
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Bo

Parashat Bo
Rabbi Isaac Mann

This week’s Torah portion contains the description of the last three makkot (plagues) that struck Egypt before the Pharaoh finally relented and allowed the Jewish slaves to leave. With that the geulah (redemption) began.

I was always intrigued by the penultimate makkah – that of hoshekh (darkness). It does not seem to fit into the order or sequence established by the other plagues whereby they seem to get more and more severe as they progress from the first plague of blood to the last one – death of the firstborn. The early makkot, those of blood, frogs, and lice were more like nuisances, not really destructive of humans or property.  The first two were even duplicated to some extent by the Egyptian magicians. But as the plagues continue they get more destructive culminating in barad (hail) and arbeh (locusts). The former was severe enough to kill animals, as well as humans, not brought indoors and to destroy crops and trees (Exodus  9:25). Read More >

By |2014-02-13T11:56:50-05:00February 13, 2014|
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Va-Eira

Parashat Va-Eira
Jerome Chanes

Parashat Va-Eira is one of the parashiyot that transition Sefer Bereishit to Sefer Shemot. The very last word in the Book of Genesis is “Mitzrayim,” Egypt, and the point is made, immediately, that the exile has begun. In order to understand Va-Eira, we need to return to Shemot, in which the nature of our exile is explored.

Sefer Shemot is a book whose narrative begins, “And these are the names . . .,” but there are no names! The unnamed couple who have an unnamed baby under the reign of the unnamed Pharaoh whose unnamed daughter pulls him out of the Nile and, at some point, names him. In fact, our hero has no name.

So in chapter two, which is where the narrative begins, we know all the characters-Yocheved and Miriam and Amram and Pharaoh’s daughter-but no one is named in the text. Very striking in our Humash, which is obsessed with names: the genealogies, the careful identification of ancestry. Names are important. But here, Read More >

By |2014-02-13T11:54:19-05:00February 13, 2014|
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Shemot

Parashat Shemot
Rabbi Jill Hammer

Names: Five Meditations for Parashat Shemot
1.
The daughter of Pharaoh went down to wash in the Nile, and her maidens walked along the shore of the river. She saw the basket in the reeds and sent her handmaid, who fetched it. She opened it and saw the child-a boy, crying– and she had pity on him and said: “This is one of the Hebrew children.”
Think of a moment when you, like Moses, were in need of compassion from someone else. Remember or imagine receiving compassion in that moment. Now, think of a moment when you, like Pharaoh’s daughter, experienced deep compassion and love for someone else. Return to that moment and bring the heart-movement of hesed, of lovingkindness, to the present.
Name God El Rahum ve-Hanun, Divine Compassion and Graciousness.
2.
An angel of YHWH appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of the bush; he looked, and lo, the bush was Read More >
By |2014-02-13T11:51:52-05:00February 13, 2014|
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Vayhi

Parashat Vay’hi
Hazzan Marcia Lane

As a Jew, and in particular as a hazzan, I’ve always felt very comfortable with life in thegolah, in exile from the Land of Israel. As much as I love it when I’m there, I feel my Judaism strengthened by my life here in the United States. In the final parashah of the book of Genesis, Vay’hi, we close out the narrative of the families of our patriarchs and prepare for the next story, one that will take the tribes descended from those patriarchs from servitude in Egypt to the brink of the Land of Canaan, which will later become Israel. The essence of Parashat Vay’hi is life and death, specifically the lives and deaths of Jacob and his beloved son Joseph. Curiously, the ways in which they lived are not necessarily reflected in the events surrounding their deaths. Is there something to be learned from these two men about relationships to family, to the land Read More >

By |2014-02-13T11:49:42-05:00February 13, 2014|
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Vayehi

Parashat Vay’hi
Hazzan Marcia Lane

As a Jew, and in particular as a hazzan, I’ve always felt very comfortable with life in thegolah, in exile from the Land of Israel. As much as I love it when I’m there, I feel my Judaism strengthened by my life here in the United States. In the final parashah of the book of Genesis, Vay’hi, we close out the narrative of the families of our patriarchs and prepare for the next story, one that will take the tribes descended from those patriarchs from servitude in Egypt to the brink of the Land of Canaan, which will later become Israel. The essence of Parashat Vay’hi is life and death, specifically the lives and deaths of Jacob and his beloved son Joseph. Curiously, the ways in which they lived are not necessarily reflected in the events surrounding their deaths. Is there something to be learned from these two men about relationships to family, to the land Read More >

By |2014-02-13T11:49:42-05:00February 13, 2014|
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Va-Yigash

Parashat Va-Yigash
Rabbi Michael Pitkowsky
In Parashat Va-Yigash we read the following description of the conversation between Joseph’s brothers and their father Jacob.
“But when they recounted all that Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.” (Genesis 45:27)

According to this verse, Jacob had been in a state of mourning during the years when he thought that Joseph was dead, but upon hearing the news that he was still alive, “the spirit of their father Jacob revived.”

The Rambam, Moses Maimonides, in the seventh chapter of his introduction to his commentary on Pirkei Avot, addressed the issue of prophecy. What is prophecy? How does someone become a prophet? What affects prophecy? Below are some selections from that chapter, with the Rambam eventually integrating the renewed spirit of Jacob from this week’s parashah into the Read More >

By |2014-02-13T11:46:57-05:00February 13, 2014|
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Hanukkah

Hanukkah

by Rabbi Len Levin

Why do we celebrate Hanukkah? Why is it not commemorated in the Bible or in the Mishnah? And what lessons does it have for our time?

Hanukkah commemorates the clash of Judaism with the dominant Hellenistic civilization of late antiquity. Not only did the Syrian king Antiochus seek to impose pagan worship on the Jews; there were also Jews who actively sought to blend entirely into that civilization. Males disguised their circumcision in order to compete naked in the gymnasium. The Temple was converted into a pagan temple and a pig was offered on the altar. There was the real danger that the practice of Judaism would come to an end.

The Maccabees led a successful revolt, drove out the Syrians, and rededicated the Temple. “Hanukkah” means “dedication” and its name derives from that event.

But the struggle did not end there. The descendants of the Maccabees, the Hasmoneans, founded a dynasty. Read More >

By |2014-02-13T11:34:35-05:00February 13, 2014|
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Parashat Shelah

Holy Imperfection
By Rabbi Len Levin

In one of his most Promethean poems, “The Dead of the Wilderness,” the modern Hebrew poet Hayyim Nachman Bialik depicts the generation of the world as sleeping giants, who one day will rise tempestuously to declare, “We are the last generation of slavery, and the first generation of freedom!”

Bialik bases his account explicitly on a passage in the Talmud (Bava Batra 73b), where an Arab desert-dweller reported to have seen the “dead of the wilderness,” so huge that a man on a camel with his spear upraised could pass under the bent knee of one of the fallen giants without touching him. He also implicitly relies on the view of Rabbi Eliezer, who in Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:3 claims that the generation of the wilderness have a portion in the World to Come.

The biblical account does not paint such a positive picture of the generation of the wilderness. For Read More >

By |2013-05-30T14:25:57-04:00May 30, 2013|
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Parashat BeHa’alotkha

“Dealing With The Enemies In Our Midst”

By Rabbi Dorit Edut

 

As we open the Ark to remove our Torah scrolls every Shabbat, we recite these lines which come from this week’s parashah, Numbers 10:35:

“When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say:

Advance, O Lord!

May Your enemies be scattered,

And may Your foes flee before You!”

Around this verse and the next one are inverted letter nuns, something which is only seen here in the Torah and seven times in the Book of Psalms. Our Sages of the Talmud, Tractate Shabbat 115b-116a, discussed this and said that these lines are either an insertion meant to go elsewhere or actually form their own separate book of the Torah – which would mean there are really SEVEN books of the Torah, not five!

Yet I think these verses are really very integral to this portion and speak to us very personally today. First we must imagine the scene Read More >

By |2013-05-23T13:16:22-04:00May 23, 2013|
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Parashat Naso

By Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman

The wilderness travels in the book of Bemidbar begin with the description of the Israelite’s camp, its orientation to the four directions: the Tabernacle at the center and the identifying banners of the twelve tribes flying at the front of each tribal camp. This is a traveling camp. It will dismantle itself and reassemble countless times over the next forty years. It will move in circles, never arriving at its hoped for destination, while days and years will pass. A lifetime will pass for these people as they journey forward and back, right and left, but they will always maintain a focus on the ‘holy’, the Tabernacle, at the center. The ‘holy’ will travel with them and as such, it must be dismantled and reassembled many times over, at each pause on the journey.

Our parashah tells us that each Levite clan, the Gershonite, Merrarite and Kohathite, has the appointed Read More >

By |2013-05-17T10:22:21-04:00May 17, 2013|
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Parashat Bemidbar

By Rabbi Isaac Mann

I often wondered when I was in a doctor’s examining room and he had to see my private parts that he told me to undress in private and only then would he come back in to examine me. Wasn’t he going to look at those erogenous zones anyway? If he was going to see me in my birthday suit in any case, why did I have to shed my clothes when he wasn’t looking? Was he some kind of fetishist or did he get sexual pleasure from watching someone disrobe – and thus, as an honorable man, told me to do so in private?

Actually, the doctor, perhaps unknowingly, was in sync with a very interesting Torah teaching that springs forth from a passage at the very end of the parashah of Bemidbar (Numbers 4:17-20), this week’s Torah reading.

In this passage God tells Moshe and Aaron Read More >

By |2013-05-09T10:19:38-04:00May 9, 2013|
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Parashot Behar-Behukotai

Texts that Call for Faith
By Rabbi Judith Edelstein

This year, as in many, these two Torah portions are combined into one reading in order to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of the lunar calendar. Behar iterates the laws of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, to occur every seventh and fiftieth year respectively. At these times the fields and vineyards of the Israelites are to remain untouched, except for gathering produce from past years, which could be shared with others and eaten, but could not be sold for profit. All land is to be returned to its previous owner; this requires adjustments in payments as the Jubilee year approaches. One is prohibited from charging interest on a loan to an indigent Israelite. Hebrew slaves are to be treated with respect and can be redeemed by a relative. Finally, Hebrew slaves can go free, although gentile slaves are to remain captive, and possessions are to be passed Read More >

By |2013-05-03T10:10:56-04:00May 3, 2013|
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Parashat Aharei Mot-Kedoshim

Yearning for Wholeness
By Rabbi Len Levin

Chapter 19 of Leviticus is one of the most sublime-and one of the most puzzling-in the entire Bible. Imitate God through being “holy”; honor your parents; keep the Sabbath; do not put a stumbling-block before the blind; love your neighbor as yourself-what could be more ennobling and uplifting? But then there are the puzzling parts: don’t desecrate your sacrifice by keeping it till the third day; avoid mixtures in plowing, seeding, and clothing; don’t eat the fruit of immature trees. What does the one set of rules have to do with the other?

The seemingly indiscriminate mixture of ethical and ritual precepts is quite characteristic of the vision of the author of this section of Leviticus (dubbed “the Holiness Code” by modern Biblical scholars). The late Jacob Milgrom suggested, appropriately, that this author had heard the prophet Isaiah’s denunciation of those who observe priestly rituals and neglect ethics, Read More >

By |2013-04-18T11:15:29-04:00April 18, 2013|
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Parashat Tazria-Metzora

By Rabbi Dorit Edut

Great joy resounded in the halls of modern science when the long-sought after “God particle”, the Higgs-boson element, was recently confirmed in the special, underground, womb-like fission testing chamber in Switzerland. While it is entirely wonderful to think that we can now have measurable evidence of how matter begins to be formed at the level of the smallest perceivable particles, yet there is nothing here emotionally or spiritually that can compare to the experience of giving birth to a child, a truly unforgettable spiritual event in our lives. Personally, I recall the birth of my children as a physically exhausting, but emotionally exhilarating time, where closeness of life AND death were tangibly experienced. During and immediately following my daughters’ births, I experienced a closeness to God like never before and which is hard to express in words. Because we are unable to remember our own birth or Read More >

By |2013-04-11T10:36:37-04:00April 11, 2013|
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Parashat Shemini

By Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman

Parashat Shemini begins with the ‘grand opening’ of the Tabernacle. Aaron and his sons have been properly garbed and consecrated for their task of serving as priests. Aaron offers the very first sacrifices upon the altar, and to the astonishment of all those gathered, God responds by sending forth a fire that consumes the offering on the altar. “Fire came forth from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering.” (Lev. 9:24) The people are overwhelmed by this display of God’s presence. The text relates “all the people saw and shouted and fell on their faces.” (Lev. 9:24) The sacrificial relationship between the people and God, that has been meticulously instructed, designed and carried out to perfection, has been consummated. The people have put forth their offerings for expiation from the sin of the Golden Calf and God has responded with acceptance. One might see this event as a second Read More >

By |2013-04-04T10:26:24-04:00April 4, 2013|
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Passover

By Rabbi Isaac Mann

Freedom From or Freedom To

The Pesah holiday is referred to in our liturgy as zman heruteinu, the time of our freedom. The reference is of course to our freedom from Egypt, our release from slavery. Interestingly, the word heruteinu or any form thereof does not appear in the Hebrew Bible. The standard Biblical word for freedom in its root form, especially freedom from slavery, is hofesh, as in Ex. 21:2, where the Torah instructs us that a slave shall work for six years and go out to freedom (yezei la-hofshi) in the seventh. We also find the word dror used in the general sense of freedom or liberty, as in Lev. 25:10, which is the source for the famous quote on the Liberty Bell – “Proclaim liberty (dror) throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” The Biblical words hofesh and dror were ignored by Read More >

By |2013-03-28T10:24:43-04:00March 28, 2013|
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Parashat Tzav-Shabbat Ha-Gadol

By Rabbi Judith Edelstein

Shabbat Hagadol

This “Great Shabbat,” which falls before Pesah, can be viewed as a paradigm for Judaism itself, as well as for the changing role of the rabbi over the centuries. There are a variety of explanations for the nomenclature and unique customs associated with this unique Shabbat.

“In Tosafot (Shabbat 87), in accordance with the Midrash we read: And therefore we call it Shabbat Hagadol because a great miracle was performed on that day” (Eliyahu Kitov, The Book of Our Heritage, p. 150).
Early sources describe the first Shabbat Hagadol being celebrated on the 10th of Nisan, Saturday, five days before the Israelites escaped from Egypt. “On the tenth day of the month…each man shall take a lamb for a household…” (Exodus 12:3) It was believed that a miracle enabled the Israelites to select the lamb for sacrifice on that Shabbat, because the Egyptians, who normally would not have permitted them to do this Read More >
By |2013-03-21T10:21:35-04:00March 21, 2013|
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Parashat Vayikra

by Rabbi Bob Freedman

The morning liturgy in our prayerbook includes a section for study of the laws of offerings. The rationale for this comes from Taanit 27b where the rabbis envision Abraham foreseeing a time to come when worship by means of offerings will no longer be possible. He asks God, “What will happen to Israel when the Temple no longer exists?” God replies, “I have already long ago provided for them in the Torah the order of sacrifices. Whenever they read it I will deem it as if they had offered them before me and I will grant them pardon for all their iniquities.” At the end of a section discussing prayer in the Tur (Orah Hayyim, chapter 2), Yaakov bar Asher notes that indeed it has come to pass as Abraham foretold and offers a verse from Hosea (14:3) as a solution, “We will offer in place of Read More >

By |2013-03-17T13:54:01-04:00March 17, 2013|
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Parashat Va-Yakhel-Pekudei Parashat Ha-Hodesh

by Rabbi Len Levin

Sacred Space and Sacred Time:

This week we take out two Sifrei Torah. In the first we complete the book of Exodus, especially the long sequence of Chapters 25-40 which is devoted to the construction of the Tabernacle and all its appurtenances. In the second we begin the narrative of the Exodus from Egypt, which we will continue and conclude during the upcoming holiday of Passover. The one deals with sacred space, the other with sacred time.

In his book The Sabbath, Abraham Joshua Heschel said that whereas the ancient pagans glorified and sanctified space, Judaism sanctifies time. He exemplified this thesis by elaborating on how the Sabbath, that most distinctive creation of the Jewish spirit, creates a “palace in time,” in which we feel transported and uniquely close to God.

Heschel was only partly right. Yes, there is something distinctive about the Jewish relation to time, and much of what is uniquely Read More >

By |2013-03-08T14:07:46-05:00March 8, 2013|
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Parashat Ki Tissa – Shabbat Parah

By Rabbi Dorit Edut

Cows and Kashering for Pesah

Passover, or Pesah, marks a half-way point in our Jewish calendar. Though it comes in the first month of the Jewish year, Nissan, it is actually six months since Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. During this month before Passover, we mark almost each Shabbat with special preparations for this important holiday. For example, this week is Shabbat Parah when we read an additional portion about the very unusual ritual of the red heifer, the cow that the High Priest sacrificed and whose ashes were then used to purify those made impure via contact with a corpse. There have been efforts made to understand the deeper meaning of this ritual. For example, in Midrash Tanhuma (Hukat, 8) it says:

“A young woman’s child once dirtied the royal palace. The king said: ‘Let his mother come and clean up her child’s mess.’ By the same token, God says Read More >

By |2013-02-28T10:39:36-05:00February 28, 2013|
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Purim

By Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman

Mitzvah gedolah l’hiyot b’simhah tamid-It is a great mitzvah to always be happy.
-R. Nachman of Bratslav

The light is ascending, spring approaches, the season of ge’ulah, of redemption, is upon us and therefore Joy is required! The essence of the celebration of Purim is Joy. The month of Adar is mentioned in the Talmud with the statement: mi’she’nikhnas Adar marbin b’simhah (Ta’anit: 29a)- When the month of Adar begins, one should increase joy. This is contrasted with a previous statement that when the month of Av begins, we should decrease our joy.

The month of Av brings the fast day of Tisha b’Av in which the destruction of both Temples is memorialized. It is a period of mourning over the exile of the Jewish people and subsequent experiences of persecution through the ages. In contrast, Adar presents an alternate reality- one of ge’ulah- redemption in the face of near destruction. Rashi Read More >

By |2013-02-21T12:37:42-05:00February 21, 2013|
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Parashat Toldot

By Rabbi Isaac Mann
One of the most popular derashot (homiletical interpretations) that rabbis make use of when delivering sermons on the Sabbath of Terumah is one that explains the reason that the Torah forbids the removal from the Aron (the Ark) of the staves that were used to carry it. The other vessels of the Mishkan (the Tabernacle) described in this week’s parashah, such as the Shulhan (the Table) and the Mizbei’ah (the Altar), also had staves that were inserted through the rings attached to the vessels to allow easy transport from place to place. But unlike the Aron, for which the Torah says (Ex. 25:15), “The staves shall be in the rings of the Ark; they shall not be taken from it,” no such prohibition is stated for the other vessels. Indeed, Maimonides lists this prohibition as one of the 613 commandments of the Torah (mitzvah 313).

The darshanim (homileticians) observe that the Read More >

By |2013-02-14T18:02:32-05:00February 14, 2013|
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Parashat Mishpatim

By Rabbi Judith Edelstein

In this week’s parashah, Mishpatim, “Laws,” we have plummeted from the terse, but exalted proclamation of the Ten Commandments in last week’s reading, Yitro, to the nitty gritty details of everyday life. This section, often referred to as the “Book of the Covenant,” although not exhaustive, as it does not cover every aspect of existence, prescribes rules for a vast range of moral, criminal and civil matters. They range from the treatment of slaves and their families, murder, theft and assault, to behavior towards the stranger and religious observance of the festivals.

What is amazing is that in the opening verse God instructs Moses to speak to all the people in an inclusive manner, “These are the rules that you shall set before them.” (Exodus 21:1) This sets us up with high expectations for what is to follow. None of the other law collections from the Ancient Near East begins Read More >

By |2013-02-06T11:43:54-05:00February 6, 2013|
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Parashat Yitro

By Rabbi Robert Freedman

The account in Exodus of the revelation at Sinai emphasizes physical boundaries. “YHVH said to Moses, ‘I will come to you in a thick cloud.'” (Exodus 19:9). “You shall set bounds for the people round about, saying, ‘Beware of going up the mountain or touching the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain will be put to death.'” (19:12) “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down, warn the people not to break through to the Lord to gaze, lest many of them perish.'” (19:21)

These boundaries are similar to those set up by the priesthood following the rebellion of Korah and the destruction of his followers. (Numbers 17:27-18:7) They kept all but the ordained priests from coming close to the holiest part of the sanctuary and prevented any non-anointed person from performing the rites of the temple cult. There, as here, the penalty for crossing the boundary was death. At Read More >

By |2013-01-31T10:29:38-05:00January 31, 2013|
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Parashat Beshalah and Tu Bish’vat

By Rabbi Len Levin

David Ben Gurion said that whoever does not believe in miracles is not a realist. He may have had in mind the day in 1948 that the fate of Jerusalem depended on negotiation of a cease-fire before the supply of food and water would run out, or a thousand other improbable events on which the life of modern Israel depended.

“God enacted a condition with the Sea, at the time of creation, that it should split upon the arrival of the Israelites.” (Genesis Rabbah, 5:5) The author of this rabbinic saying was cognizant of the Stoic doctrine of natural law-a precursor of our modern scientific view of the orderliness of the physical world-and asserted that if miracles occur, they are part of the fabric of natural causality, not a deviation from it. God works through nature.

In the daily prayer Modim, we thank God for the miracles and wonders that are with us every Read More >

By |2013-01-29T10:46:24-05:00January 29, 2013|
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Parashat Bo

By Rabbi Dorit Edut

The recent tragedy of the cold-blooded shooting of twenty-six young children and four of their adult staff at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut shocked our entire nation. After ungluing ourselves from the media reports, some of us looked for spiritual and practical ways to express our sorrow and identification with the victims’ families – leading or attending worship services, sending items to help the survivors, signing petitions against gun violence and writing to our congressmen, etc. But I would venture to say that the most prevalent reaction was to contact our children, grandchildren, children of friends and neighbors to make sure they were safe, to offer them an extra hug or bit of loving advice, and probably to whisper a little prayer asking for God’s continued protection of these precious ones. Can we make sense of this and other such violent events that have left too many Read More >

By |2013-01-17T13:46:41-05:00January 17, 2013|
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Parashat Va’eira

By Rabbi Kaya Stern-Kaufman

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  (Ezek. 36:26)

In Parashat Va’eira the Torah presents Pharaoh’s response to the successive plagues meted out by God. Seven times we read the refrain that Pharaoh’s heart was either “strengthened” or “hardened” after each plague. At times the phrase “v’lo shama aleihem – and he did not listen to them” is added to the ‘stiffening of the heart’ phrase. Pharaoh is described repeatedly as one with an iron will, or as the Torah implies, an iron heart. He excels at shutting himself off from the suffering of others and the word of God. He appears to cultivate this skill to exquisite proportions despite the plagues, the suffering of his own people and the destruction of Read More >

By |2013-01-17T11:46:00-05:00January 17, 2013|
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Parashat Shemot

By Rabbi Isaac Mann

There are certain verses or expressions in the Torah that lend themselves to a multiplicity of interpretations despite their having a simple plain meaning (referred to hereafter as peshat). One of these is found in this week’s sidra of Shemot that describes Moses’ very first action as an adult. The Torah tells us (Ex. 2:11-12) that when he grew up, he went out [from Pharaoh’s palace] and looked at the plight of his brethren and saw an Egyptian man [presumably a taskmaster] beating a Hebrew [slave] from among his (Moses’) brethren. “And he turned this way and that way (ko va-kho) and saw there was no man (va-yar ki ein ish), and he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.”

The peshat of ko vakho is obvious. Moses looked all around and saw – or thought he saw – no one observing him. Of course, as we know Read More >

By |2013-01-07T14:06:07-05:00January 7, 2013|
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Parashat Vayehi

By Rabbi Judith Edelstein

When Is a Blessing a Curse?

Shabbat provides us with a number of pivotal rituals for transformation. In the home, in particular, the first of these occurs for me after I light the Shabbos candles. Although I have already ignited them, nevertheless, I am filled with joy as I see the candles glimmering the instant I remove my hands from my eyes.

Ascending the Shabbat ladder, I am brought closest to its promise when I place my hands on my son’s head and chant the traditional blessing “May God bless you as God blessed Ephraim and Menasheh. May the One bless and protect you, illuminate your path with the spirit of holiness, and enable you to live in peace.” My six foot tall son then bows his head, giraffe-like, for me, his five feet five inch mother, to gently brush her lips on his close cropped hair. What ecstasy! Thank you, Read More >

By |2012-12-27T17:26:28-05:00December 27, 2012|
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Parashat Vayigash

By Rabbi Bob Freedman

Torah can be read as a treatise on exile. Its stories about being driven out from life’s comfort zone, from family, from community, or from the presence of God, repeat again and again, each time with a different slant. Not all end in return! Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden, and a rotating fiery sword guaranteed that they could not find their way back. Cain, for his sin, was banished from his home and branded so that he could never again have a normal relationship with humanity. Abraham was led out from his birthplace, his land, and his father’s house, and God established him in a new home. Jacob fled the wrath of his brother Esau and never saw his mother again. The family of Yisrael went into exile in Egypt. They came back to their land, as God had promised, but only after years of Read More >

By |2012-12-20T10:42:42-05:00December 20, 2012|
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Hanukkah

By Rabbi Len Levin

Why do we celebrate Hanukkah? Why is it not commemorated in the Bible or in the Mishnah? And what lessons does it have for our time?

Hanukkah commemorates the clash of Judaism with the dominant Hellenistic civilization of late antiquity. Not only did the Syrian king Antiochus seek to impose pagan worship on the Jews; there were also Jews who actively sought to blend entirely into that civilization. Males disguised their circumcision in order to compete naked in the gymnasium. The Temple was converted into a pagan temple and a pig was offered on the altar. There was the real danger that the practice of Judaism would come to an end.

The Maccabees led a successful revolt, drove out the Syrians, and rededicated the Temple. “Hanukkah” means “dedication” and its name derives from that event.

But the struggle did not end there. The descendants of the Maccabees, the Hasmoneans, founded a dynasty. Read More >

By |2012-12-13T10:08:54-05:00December 13, 2012|
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Parashat Vayeishev

By Rabbi Dorit Edut

As many of us exit the theater, having just seen the new Spielberg movie “Lincoln”, we cannot help but think about the impact this great president had on our world to this day through his courageous decision to put an end to slavery in this country. This act of great justice was not only in line with the founding principles of democracy embodied in our Constitution, but also based on the Biblical idea of offering freedom to slaves during the 7th and 50th years of the Hebrew calendar. It opened the door to new life, new opportunities, to the blessings which freedom could bring to a whole race of people who had been so terribly mistreated and forgotten for so long. Slavery is just one form of imprisonment or captivity which we should all be aware of and sensitive to.

The mitzvah of releasing captives – Pidyon Shevuyim – is Read More >

By |2012-12-06T18:15:30-05:00December 6, 2012|
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Parashat Vayishlah

By Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman

This week’s parashah, Va-Yishlah focuses on the homeward journey of Jacob and his family. This entire sidrah seems to swing widely between the poles of blessing and calamity. While the overt context of the parashah focuses on Jacob’s inner and outward journeys, the feminine voices within the family are struck down through tragedy and death. Much as Jacob/Israel can be seen as an archetypal figure representing the Jewish people, so too the loss of the feminine in this parashah may have symbolic significance for the spiritual narrative of the Jewish People.

The parashah begins with Jacob’s encounter with a mysterious “man” with whom he wrestles and from whom he demands a blessing. He receives a new name, the root of which can be understood as Sar-to exert authority, to master. The implication is that he has mastered some aspect of relationship to both the Divine and to human beings. (See Read More >

By |2012-11-29T14:52:18-05:00November 29, 2012|
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Parashat Vayeitzei

By Rabbi Isaac Mann

Parashat Vayeitzei speaks of Jacob’s sojourn in Haran after fleeing from Eretz Canaan (the Land of Canaan) to escape Esau’s wrath. As he comes into Haran, Jacob engages in a dialogue with some of the shepherds of that town who have just arrived at the watering well with their sheep and are waiting for others to come and help them roll off the heavy stone that sits atop the well (Genesis 29:1-8).

The dialogue begins with a greeting of “My brothers, where are you from?” They respond that they are from Haran. He further asks them, “Do you know Laban son (actually grandson) of Nahor .” They respond, “We know him.” Jacob continues with, “Is he OK (more literally: Is he at peace).” Their response: “He’s OK (literally: Peace).” At that point Rachel appears on the scene, but the dialogue continues: “And he [Jacob] says, ‘The day is still long; it Read More >

By |2012-11-26T11:56:07-05:00November 26, 2012|
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Parashat Toldot

How Much Love is Too Much?

By Rabbi Judith Edelstein

This week’s parashah, Toldot, was my son’s Bar Mitzvah portion 13 years ago. I can still vividly recall teaching him Torah and Haftarah chanting. We started nine months before the date because he wanted to read as much of the parashah that he could. This was what his classmates did, and he would not be satisfied with less. I established a routine of daily practice. Often my Jacob reclined and after 10 minutes of fidgeting would brandish his foot in my face. I remained undaunted, determined that he accomplish his goal. To that end I coaxed, coached and threatened “My Little Man” (whose height then matched mine). I believed that he could do it all if he worked hard enough, despite the fact that he was quiet, shy and humble – as he has remained to this day. To my amazement, he recalls nothing of the hours we Read More >

By |2012-11-16T13:07:22-05:00November 16, 2012|
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Parashat Hayyei Sarah

By Rabbi Bob Freedman

I am fascinated by the servant of Abraham whom Abraham charges with the task of finding a wife for his son Isaac. It seems likely that the servant is Eliezer of Damascus, whom at one point Abraham wanted to make his heir. Here he is only called eved (servant), but that makes him special, one of only two people whom the Torah specifically so designates. (The other is Moses!) I suggest that by so doing, the Torah is suggesting that we think of Abraham’s servant as a paradigm, a role model for us.

The servant had earned Abraham’s complete trust. Abraham reciprocated by conferring on him the status of shaliah, his agent who, as Talmudic law stipulates, is considered as the sender himself. Abraham entrusted the servant with ten camel loads of his wealth. Moreover, by making the servant swear on his (Abraham’s) genitals, Abraham symbolically designated him to be Read More >

By |2012-11-09T12:42:18-05:00November 9, 2012|
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Parashat VaYera

By Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman

This week’s Torah portion tells the story of several crisis points in the life of one ancient family. As the parashah opens, the family constellation includes husband Abraham, first wife- Sarah, surrogate mother-Hagar and the firstborn son of Hagar and Abraham-Ishmael. The text begins with the annunciation of Isaac’s birth. As foretold, Sarah miraculously becomes pregnant and gives birth to Isaac at the age of 90. It is difficult to imagine the complicated dynamics in this unusual family situation. As the story unravels before us, so too do these relationships that have been tenuously held together by the need to ensure the future lineage of Abraham.

For thirteen years Ishmael was the treasured firstborn. Though his mother was first a servant in the household, one might wonder what has become of her status over these years. As the mother of Abraham’s firstborn, what kind of relationship do she and Abraham Read More >

By |2012-11-02T09:10:01-04:00November 2, 2012|
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Parashat Noah

Testament for Universal Humanity
By Rabbi Len Levin

The Portion of Noah concludes the Torah’s universalistic preamble to the narrative of the Jewish people. Though clearly written from a Jewish perspective, it nowhere mentions Israel or Jewry. Abram and Sarai are mentioned at the very end, as among the descendants of the line of Shem, a harbinger of the national narrative of Israel which is to follow. These eleven chapters offer a narrative of the genesis of humanity, with numerous lessons, explicit and implicit, for their moral guidance. They are addressed to all humanity, and have been accepted as a spiritual testament by the Western monotheistic faiths comprising over half the human race.

In Jewish vocabulary, bnei Noah (Noahides, or descendants of Noah) is a technical term. Descriptively, it denotes the entire human race, who according to the Biblical narrative are all descendants of Adam and Eve, but also of Noa Read More >

By |2012-10-24T11:58:39-04:00October 24, 2012|
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Parashat Bereshit

The Story of Creation
By Rabbi Judith Edelstein

For rabbis and cantors – as well as for many congregants who are involved in synagogue life, this is the most challenging and stressful time of year. No sooner have we rabbis concluded our Academy Award winning soliloquies and day of starvation than we have to change out of our kittels, or gowns, and go from the divine to the arcane as we wave an odd assortment of flora up, down, left, and right. Talk about stress, pity the left-right dyslexic and large-picture thinkers among us! The grand finale, immense commotion and ceremony surrounding the sacred scrolls before we slump into hol, the daily routine.

How do we keep the energy going? What magic gets us out of bed and keeps us on the bimah following the high drama of these weeks? What I grapple with the most, however, because I only have High Holiday responsibilities, is: How do I maintain Read More >
By |2012-10-12T18:22:17-04:00October 12, 2012|
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Shemini Atzeret

By Rabbi Isaac Mann

In this D’var Torah I would like to expand upon an interesting insight into the character of Shemini Atzeret based on a teaching that I heard from my beloved teacher Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, of blessed memory, affectionately referred to by his students as “the Rav.”

Rabbi Soloveitchik addressed the rather perplexing phenomenon of a large segment of observant Jews disregarding the clearly stated halakhah that requires Jews living outside the land of Israel to have their meals in the Sukkah (as well as sleep there) on Shemini Atzeret as they would during the holiday of Sukkot albeit without the recitation of the blessing of leisheiv ba-Sukkah (“to dwell in the Sukkah“). This halakhic rule is based on the conclusion of a talmudic discussion (Sukkah 47a) and is codified in Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah (Hilkhot Sukkah 6:13) as well as in the Shulhan Arukh (Orah Hayyim 668:1) without any dissension from Read More >

By |2012-10-04T18:19:01-04:00October 4, 2012|
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Yom Kippur

Many Little Things-One Big Thing

By Rabbi Len Levin

“May all Your creatures unite in a single band, to perform Your will wholeheartedly” (from the Uv’khen prayer in the Yom Kippur Amidah).

Jewish thought is a rich network of debates on fundamental issues. I was fortunate to be able to work with Rabbi Gordon Tucker on translating Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Heavenly Torah,an encyclopedic work that reveals the rich tapestry of debate of the rabbis and later Jewish thinkers about fundamental issues of theological outlook within Judaism.

One of the fundamental debates running throughout Jewish thought is: Does God require many little things of us, or a few big things? In the grand theophany at Sinai, did God reveal all the 613 precepts of the Torah? Or did God reveal the ten great principles that underlie all Jewish law, and reserve the explication of the details to Moses later in the Tent of Meeting?

A similar Read More >

By |2012-09-20T17:10:52-04:00September 20, 2012|
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Parashat Ki Tavo

In this week’s Torah portion we are witness to a grand ritual – a dramatization depicting the landscape of choices within which we all reside, at all times. One half of the Israelite tribes are told to stand on Mt. Gerizim while the other half of the tribes are to stand on Mt. Ebal. Between the two mountains lies a valley – middle ground within which the tribe of Levi is to stand. From this middle ground of choice, the Levites call up to those on Mt. Ebal with a series of curses that will result from choices rooted in idolatry, dishonesty, greed and lust. The Levites then call up to those on Mt. Gerizim with a series of blessings that will result from choices to live a life of mitzvot, ethical behavior, honesty and support for the disenfranchised within the community. This is followed by a much more detailed set of Read More >

By |2012-09-06T17:42:49-04:00September 6, 2012|
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Parashat Ki Tetze

by Rabbi Isaac Mann

Parashat Ki Tetze is replete with laws and regulations, some of which are found elsewhere in the Torah and some of which are partially or completely new. It would appear that the section towards the end of the parashah (Deut. 25:13-16) that deals with honest weights and measures is of the former type. The Torah here specifies that one may not have two types of weighing stones in one’s pouch – a large one and a small one (even gedolah u’ketanah) – nor may one have two types of ephahs (an ephah is an ancient Hebrew measure) in one’s home – a large one and a small one (ephah gedolah u’ketanah). These items were used for weighing and measuring merchandise that was bought and sold. But rather one must have only an honest stone (even shelemah va-tzedek) and an honest ephah (ephah shelemah va-tzedek).

As Rashi explains, quoting the Sifre Read More >

By |2012-08-31T00:11:29-04:00August 31, 2012|
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Parashat Shoftim

By Rabbi Judith Edelstein

Within the last few weeks I, and most likely many of you, have been barraged with email messages asking for donations to the presidential campaign. Initially I read the messages with a skeptical eye, planning to contribute a minimal amount at some future date. However, after viewing notes of alarm in the most recent subject lines, I began to panic. Can my small contribution possibly help any candidate to win against the behemoth fundraising machines in which individuals are contributing tens of millions of dollars, I wondered.

Nonetheless, despite my better instincts and my loathing for the way in which campaigns are financed in the United States, believing that the government should pay for them to create an even playing field for all potential candidates, not just those connected to wealth, I broke down and made a modest donation. After all what if my candidate loses because I was cheap? Read More >

By |2012-08-24T16:13:01-04:00August 24, 2012|
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Parashat Re’eh

Expanding Spiritual Consciousness
By Rabbi Bob Freedman

In Parashat Va’ethanan we are told that even when we are exiles scattered among peoples who worship gods of wood and stone, “If you search there for YHVH your God you will find God, if you seek with all your heart and all your soul” (4:29). One can seek God in any place, it seems, even the most unlikely.

However, Deuteronomy also demands the strict centralization of worship into one place. The ruling appears for the first time in our parashah but is repeated throughout the book. Verse 12:2 stipulates the obliteration of worship places scattered throughout the country. Referring to worship described in 12:2-3 that happened “on high mountains, hills, or under luxuriant trees,” 12:4 rules “Do not worship YHVH your God in this way.” Rather, we are directed (12:5, 11 and subsequently) to make our offerings only at the place where God chooses l’shaken et Read More >

By |2012-08-16T23:12:55-04:00August 16, 2012|
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Parashat Ekev

Gratitude to God, Source of Our Wealth

By Rabbi Len Levin

“Beware lest your heart grow haughty…and you say to yourselves, ‘My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me.’ Remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to get wealth…” (Deuteronomy 8:14-18).

On first sight, the portion Ekev-like most of the first eleven and last six chapters of Deuteronomy-appears purely sermonic in character. A sermon offers ethical inspiration and goals that are commendable to strive for.  But we draw a vital distinction between ethics and law.  Ethics teaches what is commendable but to some degree optional; law lays down what is obligatory.  In classic Jewish parlance, ethics is in the realm of agada, law is coterminous with halakha.

But is the distinction so hard and fast?  The medieval work Sefer Ha-Hinnukh comprises a discussion of the 613 commandments of the Torah Read More >

By |2012-08-09T10:50:55-04:00August 9, 2012|
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Parashat Vaethanan

By Rabbi Dorit Edut

“Sh’ma Yisrael – Listen O Israel…” Moses recites these lines in this week’s Torah portion at the end of his life. For us, these are usually the first Hebrew words we learn, and we are taught to say them twice daily, morning and evening, on holidays, special occasions, and even before death. This affirmation emphasizes ‘listening’ as we declare that God is ONE. To whom are we making this declaration? And why emphasize listening?

Rabbi David Hartman, in his book A Living Covenant (1985, The Free Press, pp. 164-165)says that by saying the Sh’ma we are actually recreating the Sinai experience for ourselves – listening for that still small voice of God. We tune out the distractions of our world and focus on the question which Moses emphasized and that God asks us everyday: Are we ready to become a partner with God in this world, willing to commit to Read More >

By |2012-08-02T15:47:07-04:00August 2, 2012|
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Parashat D’varim

By Rabbi Kaya Stern-Kaufman

This week’s Torah portion  “ D’varim  “ opens the book of Deuteronomy, throughout which Moses delivers an exhaustive farewell speech to the people of Israel, recounting their history, reviewing many of the laws given at Sinai and adding new laws for a future life in the promised land. The portion begins with the words Eleh ha-d’varim, meaning: these are the words, that Moses spoke. From this opening statement is derived the name for the fifth book of Torah  “ D’varim /Deuteronomy.

Many Sages and rabbis in our tradition point out that when Moses was first initiated into the role of God’s emissary to Pharaoh, he resisted the task, claiming Lo ish d’varim anochi  “ “I am not a man of words.“ And yet, forty years later Moses has indeed become a man of words. In D’varim Rabba (a tenth-century collection of midrash compiled in the tenth century from much earlier material), the Rabbis explain Read More >

By |2012-07-26T13:17:50-04:00July 26, 2012|
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Parashat Mattot-Massei

Divided We Stand, United We Fall: Not Much Has Changed

I recall the period following the ’67 war when many Jews, religious and not, swelled with pride, kvelled, at what “our” tiny nation in the desert, surrounded by enemies, had accomplished. Some of us, so inspired by the military miracle, made aliyah, moved there permanently.

Notwithstanding the enthusiasm, the vast majority of Jews remained in their “native” lands. Little could induce most of us in the USA to emigrate because we had successfully assimilated and felt secure here.

Today about half the Jews in the world live in Eretz Israel and the other half outside it. These statistics cause some Israelis to delegitimize the loyalty of those of us outside. But the truth is that it’s always been this way.

The first of this week’s double parashah, Mattot, “Tribes,” is the earliest depiction of this conflict, as two of the tribes, the Gadites and Reubenites, ask Read More >

By |2012-07-19T17:13:30-04:00July 19, 2012|
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Parashat Pinhas

 By Rabbi Isaac Mann

The beginning of Parashat Pinhas seems out of place. We have here some details of a story that is basically recounted at the end of the previous parashah of Balak, and instead of finishing the story there, some of the details are left out and only filled in at the beginning of the next parashah. Why the need to spread the rather brief story over two parashiyot?

To elaborate, at the end of Balak, we are told of the Israelites engaging openly in an orgy of idolatry and immorality with Moabite/Midianite women with whom they had recently come into contact as they were approaching the Land of Canaan. Among the offenders was the head of a prominent family (nasi bet-av) of Shimon. The brazenness of their sinful activity sparked God’s anger against His people and resulted in the outbreak of a devastating plague. 24,000 people were killed until Pinhas, the Read More >

By |2012-07-12T10:32:16-04:00July 12, 2012|
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Parashat Balak

Out of Left Field: The Portion of Balak
By Rabbi Bob Freedman

Just at a point in the narrative of Numbers when the Israelites have begun to fight for the land that God has promised them comes the story of Bil’am. It seems to say, “Dear reader, maybe at this point in our story you fear that Israel is not doing well. Yes, they can fight, but at spiritual constancy or keeping purity of purpose, their record is truly dismal. Yet don’t despair; take a step back to see the bigger picture. Even now on the far heights of Mt. Pisgah God is readying the seer Bil’am, against his will, to bring blessing on Israel.”

This Bil’am story is odd. It is by far the longest of the very few narratives in the Torah that are not about events directly experienced by the generation of the Exodus or about their history. The Israelites camped in Read More >

By |2012-07-05T10:04:39-04:00July 5, 2012|
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Parashat Hukkat

The Heifer’s Mysteries: Death and Purification

 The law of the red heifer (Numbers, Chapter 19) is offered in the Jewish tradition as the paradigm of a hok, an arbitrary law whose reasons are known only to God, but surpass human understanding. A red heifer is slaughtered and burned to ashes, then its ashes are combined with pure water to be used in the purification ceremony of people unclean by reason of contact with the dead. The final purification ceremony would take place only after a seven day waiting period following contact with the dead. What could possibly be the rationale of such a ritual?

The 1st-century Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, after delivering to a gentile an explanation by analogy with exorcism of a demon, was challenged by his students: “You deflected him with a reed! What would you say to us?” He replied: “The dead body does not defile, nor do the waters Read More >

By |2012-06-28T14:09:24-04:00June 28, 2012|
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Parashat Korah

My synagogue is presently undergoing seismic change. We will be leaving the building we have owned and occupied for about the last four years. We will be seeking to move to a more urban location, a move that bucks the persistent trend of local congregations in my hometown to move further out into the suburbs; a trend that either is driven by the desire for shuls to go where the Jews are, or, a somewhat self-fulfilling prophecy of Jews going where the shuls are built… or not. Add to the mix my own entry into the kehilah (community) about one year ago with my pluralistic (read, AJR) sensibilities.

This change has precipitated some modicum of turmoil, and fairly strong push-back. Some have resorted to personal attack. In moving the shul forward I continue to ponder what it is those who are fighting these changes are fighting against. Likewise with this week’s parashah I Read More >

By |2012-06-21T14:03:38-04:00June 21, 2012|
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Parashat Beha’alot’kha

Someone gives you a gift and says, “Here, I was saving this for just the right moment.” That is what I love about discovering new insights in the Torah; it was there all along just waiting for the right moment to be revealed. The first paper I wrote in rabbinical school was based on a few verses from this week’s parashah, Beha’alotkha; Numbers 11:24-29 to be exact (see these verses below). Consumed with both the concept, reality and authenticity of prophecy as I was at that time, here was a treasure trove of material. We do not sometimes see the words that can change our lives, we are not given the meaning until it means something to US. Well, that’s the whole point, that’s why we keep at it. Now, after years of rabbinic training and more years of life experience, I see something I missed back then; what I could not Read More >

By |2012-06-07T22:39:39-04:00June 7, 2012|
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Parashat Naso

“And now, gentlemen,” said d’Artagnan, without stopping to explain his conduct to Porthos, “All for one, one for all–that is our motto, is it not?”
“And yet–” said Porthos.
“Hold out your hand and swear!” cried Athos and Aramis at once.
Overcome by example, grumbling to himself, nevertheless, Porthos stretched out his hand, and the four friends repeated with one voice the formula dictated by d’Artagnan:  “All for one, one for all.”
From The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, Chapter 9.

When I speak to the staff at the regional medical center on the subject of treating Jewish patients, one of the first things I say to them, is that Jews, like all of their patients, have to be treated as individuals.  For we come in different denominations, with differing views on what our tradition teaches.  This has been true for centuries.  The Pharisees held that the soul lives on after death; the Sadducees held the opposite.  Read More >

By |2012-06-04T15:39:54-04:00June 4, 2012|
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Shavuot

Shavuot: A Voice that Does Not Cease

By Rabbi Len Levin

“The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai” (Exodus 19:20)

I love blintzes and cheesecake. The rabbis based the custom of eating dairy foods on Shavuot on the verse: “Honey and milk are under your tongue” (Song of Songs 4:11). But what are we celebrating? What really happened? Did God really speak to the Israelites, as it describes in the Bible? And how?

“Moses and Elijah did not ascend to heaven, nor did the Glory descend to earth.” Is this a modern skeptic speaking? No, this is the dictum of the second-century Rabbi Yose, recorded in the rabbinic midrash Mekhilta on Exodus (Bahodesh 4), and cited in Abraham Joshua Heschel’s major work Heavenly Torah As Refracted through the Generations (page 350).

It was Heschel’s amazing achievement to show how much flexibility the Talmudic rabbis exercised in interpreting the Biblical narratives of revelation, and the whole concept of Read More >

By |2012-05-24T21:01:33-04:00May 24, 2012|
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Parashat Behar-Behukotai

By Rabbi Ariann Weitzman

“It should not be believed that all the beings exist for the sake of the existence of humanity. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes, and not for the sake of something else” (Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, 3:13).

This week’s double portion elaborates on the laws of the sabbatical and Jubilee years, detailing the extreme punishment Israel will suffer if the sabbatical years are not strictly kept. The parashah opens with the reminder that these laws were given on Sinai, orienting the reader to the centrality and importance of what is to follow. Indeed, these laws must be central to the Torah’s concern, as the texts reminds us we will be removed from our land as a result of failing to abide by them, as it is written in Leviticus 26:43, “The land will be bereft of [the Israelites] and it Read More >

By |2012-05-17T19:42:24-04:00May 17, 2012|
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Parashat Emor

Mitzvah, Not Magic

By Rabbi Allen Darnov

Parashat Emor begins with laws restricting the priests, the sons of Aaron, from contact with the dead: “The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: None shall defile himself for any (dead) person among his kin” (Lev 21:1). Hizkuni (Rabbi Hezekiah ben Manoah, 13th century, France) comments that this passage appears here by design. It follows immediately upon the last verse of Parashat Kedoshim which condemns to death anybody who summons or communicates with the dead: “A man or a woman who has a ghost or a familiar spirit shall be put to death; they shall be pelted with stones…” (20:27). Hizkuni states, “…one must stone the necromancer, because Israel has no use for them; but were you to have need of an oracle, ‘speak to the priests’ and they will inquire for you through (the Read More >

By |2012-05-09T13:53:07-04:00May 9, 2012|
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Parashat Aharei Mot-Kedoshim

By Rabbi Ziona Zelazo

Turning Mundane Holiness into Sacred Holiness

I often wonder how an esoteric term like “holy” entered our lexicon. People use terms like “Holier than Thou”, “Holy Smokes” or “Holy Cow” all the time. These terms probably have no real meaning to those who use them, other than being a figure of speech. For me, however, holiness has a spiritual and divine quality, which ideally should be experienced in a serene environment. The reality is that I live in a busy and “noisy” culture. I ask myself; “Do I even recognize the difference between what is holy and what is not? How am I supposed to feel when I encounter a holy moment or a sacred experience right here, in my own back yard”?

This week’s double portion allows us to grasp what holiness is and how to achieve it in our lives. There are three concepts presented Read More >

By |2012-05-03T21:12:10-04:00May 3, 2012|
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Parashat Tazria-Metzora

By Rabbi Eric Milgrim

Our Torah is divided into 54 regular parashiyot. In a leap year (7 times in every 19 year cycle) each parashah is read on a separate Shabbat so that the annual cycle of Torah readings are able to come at its proper time. In a “common” year certain parashyot are combined like Tazria and Metzora so that the annual cycle of Torah readings will happen in its proper time. (Since Parashat “Tzav” is supposed to be read on a Shabbat prior to Passover, therefore, Tazria and Metzora are combined.) Read More >

By |2012-04-26T23:02:50-04:00April 26, 2012|
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Parashat Shemini

Untimely Death and the “Pesikta D’Rav Kahana”

By Rabbi Paul Bender

Parashat Shemini and its normally coupled Haftarah (II Samuel 6:1-7:17) both contain stories of the unnatural and instantaneous death by God’s hand, of apparently well meaning and respected characters, two sons of Aaron’s and Uzzah. To explain these troubling stories, and justify the deaths of Aaron’s sons, Hazal (our Sages) felt the need to provide a list of their errors and sins. But why would God cause or permit the death of people who are attempting to do good in the world? In my chaplaincy training at Sloan Kettering, a distraught husband, whose wife had ovarian cancer, with only weeks to live, came up to me and said Rabbi, how can Hashem take her so soon after our marriage? He must honor our Ketubah; how can He allow this? The grief felt by family is often indescribable. Even in the face of clear Read More >

By |2012-04-19T17:37:22-04:00April 19, 2012|
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Pesah – Last Day

By Simcha Raphael, PhD

Yizkor – Remembrance of Souls on the Eighth Day of Passover

On the eighth day of Passover we recite Yizkor prayers in memory of deceased family members. In our contemporary society, we think of Yizkor as an efficacious bereavement ritual honoring and remembering deceased loved ones. However, underlying the origins of Yizkor was a different worldview, one that assumed consciousness survives bodily death, and that through prayer and charity one could have a beneficent impact on the soul of the deceased. Understanding this view more fully, and exploring the historical evolution of Yizkor, can add a depth of meaning to our Yizkor prayers this year.

Earliest references to prayers for the dead date back to Hasmonean times. Judah Maccabee and cohorts offered prayers and sacrifices on behalf of fallen comrades “that they might be set free from their sins” (II Macc. 12:45). In Rabbinic teachings, the living Read More >

By |2012-04-12T11:24:30-04:00April 12, 2012|
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Pesah

By Rabbi Heidi Hoover

More than a decade ago, shortly after my conversion to Judaism, I was working as a religious school tutor. One day at about this time of year, I was having a conversation with a colleague about Passover, specifically the part of the haggadah that instructs us to say, “God brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.” How, I asked, could I honestly say “us?” As a Jew by Choice, I am obviously not descended by blood from the Israelites who left Egypt in the Exodus. At the same time, as a Jew, it didn’t feel right to say, “God brought them out of Egypt.”

It was a number of years later that I found two answers to my question. One came from Maimonides, one of our great rabbis, who lived in the 1100’s in Spain, Morocco, and Egypt. Maimonides wrote a letter responding to Read More >

By |2012-04-04T15:11:16-04:00April 4, 2012|
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Parashat Tzav/Shabbat HaGadol

By Rabbi Regina L. Sandler-Phillips

WHO S ROBBING GOD?

The future of life on earth depends upon whether we among the richest fifth of the world s people, having fully met our material needs, can turn to non-material sources of fulfillment.

Alan Durning, How Much Is Enough? (Worldwatch Institute, 1992)

Every year, I draw upon an ancient rabbinic ritual to transfer ownership of all hametz (leaven) in my home for the duration of Passover. Like many Jews, when I  œsell  my hametz before Passover, I actually  œbuy  a donation of ma ot hittin (portions of wheat) for those in need. This reminds me that preparing my home for the holiday includes concern for those outside my home. Read More >

By |2012-03-29T16:00:54-04:00March 29, 2012|
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Parashat Vayikra

by Rabbi Sanford Olshansky

Many American Jews say they don’t like ritual. Nevertheless, most of us are creatures of ritual, although we may call it habit.We have rituals for how we begin our day and prepare for work, whether or not we include traditional prayers. Parashat Vayikra, the first portion of the book of Leviticus (Sefer Vayikra in Hebrew), is almost entirely about ritual – specifically the offering of sacrifices.In ancient Israel, until formal prayer services developed, probably in response to the destruction of the Temple in the year 70, C.E., sacrifices were the main method of worshipping God. These sacrifices addressed needs that we still experience today.

One of the strongest human emotions is guilt.We need ways to deal with feelings of guilt – as individuals and as communities. In Leviticus this is accomplished through sacrifice rather than other methods (Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, San Francisco, 2001, p. 322). As Read More >

By |2012-03-22T10:42:22-04:00March 22, 2012|
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Parashat Ki Tissa

By Rabbi Marc Rudolph

And oftentimes excusing of a fault
Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.
~William Shakespeare

In this week’s parashah, Ki Tissa, the Israelites, under the guidance of Aaron, build a golden calf. When confronted by Moses as to how he could allow the people to engage in such behavior, Aaron makes… excuses. First, he blames the people themselves. “You know,” he tells Moses, “that this people, they are bent on evil.” Then Aaron seems to evade responsibility: “I said to them, ‘Who has gold?’ They removed it and gave it to me.” Finally, he claims that he did not take an active role in creating the Golden Calf – “I threw it into the fire, and this calf emerged!” One commentator notes that in claiming he did not actively fashion the golden calf Aaron implies divine approval! (Etz Hayim Torah and Commentary, p. 534). Would it not have been better Read More >

By |2012-03-05T21:28:07-05:00March 5, 2012|
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Parashat Terumah/Shabbat Zakhor

By Rabbi Jaron Matlow

On the Shabbat before Purim we read the special Maftir reminding us of our obligation to FORGET AMALEK. On Shabbat Zakhor, the Sabbath of remembrance, we read (Deuteronomy 25:17-19):

Remember what Amalek did to you by the way, when you came forth out of Egypt; how he met you by the way, and struck at your rear, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary… Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around… you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget it.

The name Amalek carries a special meaning in Jewish tradition. It is used to refer to the arch-enemy of the Jewish people at the time in question. We have a tradition that that Haman is a descendent of Amalek. We have referred to Hitler (yimah shemo Read More >

By |2012-03-01T15:02:01-05:00March 1, 2012|
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Parashat Terumah

By Rabbi Greg Schindler

“You’re not listening to me, are you?

The words cut me to the quick. I, in fact, have no idea what was being said for the last minute or so.

We’ve all been there — a family member or friend is talking to us, and what are we doing? We are daydreaming, checking our cell phone, or thinking about what we intend to say next. What we’re not doing, is listening. Read More >

By |2012-02-23T12:57:50-05:00February 23, 2012|
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Parashat Mishpatim

Getting by with a Little Help from our Friends

By Rabbi Peggy Berman de Prophetis

Parashat Mishpatim presents us with information overload-rules, rules, and more rules. And even though the Israelites promise that “all that the Lord has spoken we will do and obey” (Ex. 24:7), they sometimes need reminding, for they are no more and no less than imperfect, fallible human beings. And so are we all.

On reading Mishpatim this time around, Exodus 21: 28-29 called out to me: “When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox is not to be punished. If, however, the ox has been in the habit of goring, and its owner, though warned, has failed to guard it, and, it kills a man or a woman-the ox shall be stoned and its owner, too, shall Read More >

By |2012-02-16T13:56:42-05:00February 16, 2012|
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Parashat Yitro

By Rabbi Bruce Alpert

As our world grows more secular, the questions I am asked about my faith grow more sophisticated. People used to ask me whether I believed in God. Given my choice of profession, the answer to that one strikes most as obvious. So now I am asked instead whether I believe in a personal God – a living, active God, if you will; one who not only creates, but who reveals and redeems as well.

The gist of this question, as I hear it at least, seems to be as follows: “I understand why you would hold onto some vague, deistic notions out of a sense fidelity to your past or solidarity with your people. But given our knowledge of the vastness of the universe (or perhaps even multiverse), can you seriously believe that there can be a God who knows and cares about us as a species, let alone as Read More >

By |2012-02-09T13:51:08-05:00February 9, 2012|
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Parashat Beshalah

By Rabbi/Cantor Anne Heath

There were no auditions!! There were no judges!! That’s right. You heard it here first. When Moses and the Israelites sang on the shores of the sea (Exodus 15:1) and when Miriam and all the women danced with hand-drums (Exodus 15:20) no leader said, “why don’t you just mouth the words,” or “why don’t you stand there and hold up the scenery.” No Israelite man or woman said, “I’ll just sit here quietly, I don’t know the words, I don’t know the steps, you take my part.” Moses and Miriam didn’t say, “we need producers, we need a studio, we need electronics, we need editing, gotta get this right!!” Moses and Miriam and the Israelites – together – raised their voices and moved their bodies in thanksgiving and praise.

We’re often shamed into silence. My college freshman voice teacher told me, “no one will ever pay to hear you sing!” Read More >

By |2012-02-02T12:40:24-05:00February 2, 2012|
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Parashat Bo

By Rabbi Allen Darnov

Parashat Bo announces: “This month (Nissan) shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you….” (Exod 12:2). This sounds, of course, as if the Torah is commanding a New Year’s festival to be observed in the spring. Should we be confused that the Torah posts two different New Years (one in the spring and one in the fall), Nahmanides (Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman, also known as Ramban) comes to our aid. He calls Tishrei the “beginning of years” (since Creation) while he refers to Nissan as the “beginning of months” since the Exodus from Egypt. By having Israel number their months in relation to Nissan, we would always keep in mind the miracle of the Exodus and our freedom. Thus, when the Torah calls for a day of blasting the ram’s horn “in the seventh month,” Read More >

By |2012-01-25T12:21:51-05:00January 25, 2012|
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Parashat Va’era

By Rabbi Aryeh Meir

The previous parashah ends with the failure of Moshe’s first attempt to free the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. Moshe reiterates his earlier doubts about his ability to lead saying, “for what reason have you sent me… You have not rescued your people!” (Exodus 5:22-23). God then repeats the promise made at the burning bush regarding the covenant with the patriarchs and the certainty of the coming liberation from bondage: “Therefore, say to the Children of Israel; I am YHWH; I will bring you out from beneath the burdens of Egypt, I will rescue you from servitude to them, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, with great acts of judgment…I will bring you into the land… (and) I will give it to you as a possession” (Exodus 6:6-8).

Why the repetition? Moshe, so unsure of himself, and having confronted the Egyptian despot and seen his unshakeable will and the Read More >

By |2012-01-18T14:04:29-05:00January 18, 2012|
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Parashat Shemot

By Professor Jerome Chanes

The opening chapters of the Book of Exodus relate a narrative that is strange, not in its story, but in its telling; it is a book that begins V’eleh shemot, “And these are the names . . .,” but there are no names! There are names of the Jacob’s family who came down to Egypt, but the individuals centrally involved in the story of this book are not identified by name. We know all the characters, Yocheved and Miriam and Amram and Pharaoh’s daughter-but no one is named in the text (for example: “And a son of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi . . .”). Most striking, the little boy has no name. His mother does not name him; Pharaoh’s daughter finally, the second time around, does name him, as “Moses.”

In fact, our hero has no name.

What the Book of Exodus is about a people who Read More >

By |2012-01-12T19:02:57-05:00January 12, 2012|
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Parashat Vayehi

The Future – A Sealed Book?

Rabbi Len Levin

If you were handed a sealed envelope that you had reason to believe contained an infallible prediction of the future course of your life — or of the world’s political history of the next twenty years — would you open it?

This week’s portion Vayehi is unique in its orthography of all portions in the Torah. Whereas the beginning of most portions is indicated by a clear paragraph break, with the words beginning on a new line or after a couple of inches of blank space, Vayehi begins after only a two-letter space separating it from the previous text. The rabbis of the third century interpreted this anomaly: “Jacob our patriarch sought to disclose the end of days, but it was sealed off from him” (Genesis Rabbah 96:1).

Indeed, in the continuation of the portion, Jacob gathers his sons and tells them, “Come together that Read More >

By |2012-01-04T12:09:17-05:00January 4, 2012|
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Parashat Vayigash

The Moment of Impact

By Cantor Marcia Lane

 

In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell describes the moment when a situation changes, the small thing that had a big impact on a problem or a situation.

In this week’s parashah we come to the moment in a long narrative when life will change for each of the participants in the drama. Joseph sits, disguised as the Pharaoh’s viceroy, watching his brothers try desperately to get out of the seemingly impossible situation they are in. Do they leave their brother Benjamin behind, go home and break the bad news to dad? Do they argue, fight, reason? How can they win his freedom without sacrificing their own? The sum total of what they think they know is only a fraction of what is actually happening. Joseph holds all the cards. He knows who they are, what they have done, what he has done to them — Read More >

By |2011-12-27T18:16:03-05:00December 27, 2011|
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Hanukkah

Hanukkah: In Praise Of The Righteous Gentile

By Irwin Huberman

Often at this time of the year, it feels as if the entire world is enveloped in darkness. Daylight is at a premium. Cold air chills our bones. And especially during these times of economic challenge, there is no shortage of cynicism in the world. Many Americans have lost faith in their leaders and institutions. True heroes are so hard to come by.

Indeed, where can true hope and light be found?

But as the story of Hanukkah teaches us, sometimes in life our greatest sources of light can come from everyday people performing remarkable miracles with extraordinary grace.

The second blessing over the Hanukkah candles not only praises God for performing miracles during times of the Maccabees, but also thanks God for continuing these remarkable feats to this day.

The story of Mary Katz Erlich and her rescuers Egle and Aurimas Ruzgys is Read More >

By |2011-12-19T11:14:49-05:00December 19, 2011|
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Parashat Vayeshev

By Rabbi Andrea Myers

 

Years ago, I took a road trip to Cincinnati to do research at the archives of Hebrew Union College. It was my first time away from home since our daughter Ariella had been born four years before.

In preparation for my departure, my partner Lisa asked me whether I needed anything sent to the dry cleaners, and I asked her to send my pea coat so I would be warm in the cold Cincinnati spring. She was kind enough to do so, but busy enough that she did not check the pockets. We realized, too late, that my wallet was inside. We called the dry cleaners, who told us it was nowhere to be found. We were rabbinic enough to want to give the benefit of the doubt, and New Yorkers enough that we were skeptical. We went that night to the premises, and found the remains of my wallet Read More >

By |2011-12-15T21:09:50-05:00December 15, 2011|
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Parashat Vayishlah

By Miriam Herscher

 

“I am Jacob. I am going home, and I am anxious and scared.

“I have been away for twenty years. I have not spoken to nor seen my brother or parents in all that time. We parted under horrendous circumstances. I cheated my brother, with the help of my mother, and stole his birthright blessing from our father. It should have been his. But he did actually say once that I could have it; one day he came home from hunting and wanted the food that I had cooked. In exchange for it I asked him to sell me his birthright, and he did.

“Now, I know my father is still alive, and I want to try to reconcile with my brother. But I am terrified of his anger. Maybe he still wants to kill me. Is reconciliation possible after all these years? Will he forgive me? Can there even be forgiveness Read More >

By |2011-12-07T15:41:16-05:00December 7, 2011|
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Parashat Ki Tetzei

By Susan Elkodsi

 

“And Jacob left Beersheva, and he went to Haran. And he arrived at the place and lodged there because the sun had set” (Gen. 28:10-11).

The term bashert is often used when speaking about falling in love, or when something happens that we truly feel was “meant to be.” We read that Jacob was forced to camp out bamakom, “at the place,” on his way from Beersheva to Haran, because the sun had set. The intellectual, left side of my brain knows that it would have been dangerous for him to continue traveling in the dark, but the more creative, right side of my brain, is convinced that it was bashert that he stopped in this particular place. It was here, bamakom, that Jacob had the dream about angels going up and down a ladder, and when he awakened from his sleep, he said, Akhen, yesh Adonai bamakom hazeh va’anokhi lo yadati, “Indeed, the Lord is in this place, and I Read More >

By |2011-11-30T18:24:22-05:00November 30, 2011|
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Parashat Toldot

Don’t Forget the Lentils

By Rabbi Katy Z. Allen

What about the lentils?

“Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the open, famished. And Esau said to Jacob, ‘Give me some of that red stuff to gulp down, for I am famished’- which is why he was named Edom. Jacob said, ‘First sell me your birthright.’ And Esau said, ‘I am at the point of death, so of what use is my birthright to me?’ But Jacob said, ‘Swear to me first.’ So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Jacob then gave Esau bread and lentil stew; he ate and drank, and he rose and went away. Thus did Esau spurn the birthright” (Gen 25:29-34, New JPS translation).

We, along with the commentators, tend to focus on the people in this and other biblical stories, trying to gain insight into the meaning of the text and Read More >

By |2011-11-24T23:59:29-05:00November 24, 2011|
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Parashat Hayyei Sarah

By Cantor Jaclyn Chernett

 

Traditionally, in Kol Nefesh, our little shul in London, this sedra marks the annual celebration for our Hevra Kadisha, when we study and have a meal together. The Hevra Kadisha it is, literally, a Sacred Society that, among other things, ritually prepares bodies of those who have died, for their final rest. Ironically, this year it coincides with Brian’s and my Golden Wedding anniversary and although my heart sank at the sobering thought of finding an analogy between our simha and burial, it is actually apposite! The stories in our sedra show the family of Abraham move from death (first that of Sarah) to marriage (of Isaac and Rebecca) to death (of Abraham and Ishmael). While on the surface these links seem rather shocking, they heighten awareness of how Jewish tradition helps us to try to understand the world and to live in alignment with our deepest values.

When Sarah Read More >

By |2011-11-15T12:53:56-05:00November 15, 2011|
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Parashat VaYera

By Rabbi Enid Lader

“Adonai appeared to him in the terebinths of Mamre, while he was sitting in the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day” (Gen. 18:1). Through Rashi’s commentary on this verse, we learn that God’s appearance before Abraham was an act of bikkur holim – visiting the sick, and that Rabbi. Hama ben Hanina said, “It was the third day after his circumcision, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, came to inquire after him.” This is indeed the proof text for the mitzvah of visiting the sick, and there is much to learn from God’s example.

There is a time for sending a get well card… and there is a time for a personal visit. And this verse teaches us the importance of a personal visit. But not right away. The patient needs time to heal on his (or her) own. Moses Maimonides (Rambam) spells this Read More >

By |2011-11-08T11:25:57-05:00November 8, 2011|
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Parashat Vayeira

By Rabbi Enid Lader

“Adonai appeared to him in the terebinths of Mamre, while he was sitting in the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day” (Gen. 18:1). Through Rashi’s commentary on this verse, we learn that God’s appearance before Abraham was an act of bikkur holim – visiting the sick, and that Rabbi. Hama ben Hanina said, “It was the third day after his circumcision, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, came to inquire after him.” This is indeed the proof text for the mitzvah of visiting the sick, and there is much to learn from God’s example.

There is a time for sending a get well card… and there is a time for a personal visit. And this verse teaches us the importance of a personal visit. But not right away. The patient needs time to heal on his (or her) own. Moses Maimonides (Rambam) spells this Read More >

By |2011-11-08T11:25:57-05:00November 8, 2011|
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Parashat Lekh Lekha

By Simcha Raphael

I imagine it was a crystal clear desert night in Haran. Standing under a glittering band of stars adorning ancient Mesopotamian skies, Abram son of Terah suddenly heard a beckoning voice:

Abram! Go forth from your native land, from your birthplace, from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you… and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Gen. 12:1-3)

In Parashat Lekh Lekha, Abraham is called by G!d to sojourn to Canaan and in so doing, becomes the progenitor of the Jewish people and ultimately, the Abrahamic religions. Here we encounter the classical calling of the hero (see Joseph Campbell, Hero with A Thousand Faces). Responding to a divine calling, an individual embarks upon a journey into the unknown, following their destiny and becoming an agent for world transformation.

Lekh Read More >

By |2011-11-03T12:05:19-04:00November 3, 2011|
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Parashat Noach

By Rabbi Alan Abraham Kay

As I write this D’var Torah, “The falling leaves drift by my window, the autumn leaves of red and gold” and I hum the Frank Sinatra song and thank God for giving us daylight and nightlight and four seasons. I re-read the verse from Parashat Noah, “So long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22) and I smile in gratitude. God turned away from further destruction after The Flood and, in choosing life, gave Noah and his family and generations to follow the turning of day into night and into day and night again and the autumn leaves of red and gold. No more precious gift has been given to humankind than sunrise and sunset and the turning of one season into another.

I am living the second cycle of seasons since my metastatic lung Read More >

By |2011-10-25T10:35:42-04:00October 25, 2011|
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Parashat Noah

By Rabbi Alan Abraham Kay

As I write this D’var Torah, “The falling leaves drift by my window, the autumn leaves of red and gold” and I hum the Frank Sinatra song and thank God for giving us daylight and nightlight and four seasons. I re-read the verse from Parashat Noah, “So long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22) and I smile in gratitude. God turned away from further destruction after The Flood and, in choosing life, gave Noah and his family and generations to follow the turning of day into night and into day and night again and the autumn leaves of red and gold. No more precious gift has been given to humankind than sunrise and sunset and the turning of one season into another.

I am living the second cycle of seasons since my metastatic lung Read More >

By |2011-10-25T10:35:42-04:00October 25, 2011|
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Sukkot

By Rabbi Margaret Frisch-Klein

Sitting in a private bathroom stall on Rosh Hashanah at the synagogue, I notice a sign for a hotline for domestic abuse. At first I am saddened that we need such signs. Then I am relieved that we are beginning to acknowledge that domestic abuse happens even in the Jewish community. Then I am hopeful that another woman sitting there will know she is not alone.

Now it is Sukkot, zeman simhatenu, the time of our joy. The harvest is in. It is time to celebrate. On Sukkot the commandment is to sit in our sukkah, a fragile temporary booth open to the elements. Even though it is fragile, I love to sit in my sukkah, watching the evening sky, the moon rise, and the geese fly overhead. It reclaims a sense of peace, wholeness. It wasn’t always so.

Not everyone feels joy at Sukkot. If you are sitting in that Read More >

By |2011-10-12T12:57:32-04:00October 12, 2011|
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Yom Kippur

By Rabbi Enid Lader “As you are able, please stand for the Kol Nidre Service…” Kol Nidre…Such powerful words. Words many of us might not understand, but powerful nonetheless. Powerful through the connections… and the feelings… and the memories they invoke. As we enter through the gates of Yom Kippur, Kol Nidre is there almost like an usher, welcoming and reminding us that this is it – the serious thinking and the self-reflection are about to begin. Kol Nidre has played many roles in my experiences of entering into Yom Kippur. At each stage of my life it has had a new and special meaning. Read More >

By |2011-10-05T08:09:57-04:00October 5, 2011|
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Rosh HaShanah

Connecting with God

By Marian Kleinman

In the story of the sacrifice of Isaac we read on Rosh HaShanah, the sacrifice asked of Abraham can be explored as symbolic of relationships such as the relationship between ourselves and God.

In today’s society, individuals are frowned upon or shunned if they tell others they are “hearing God” or hearing voices. In some of our most popular literature, this attitude is prevalent. For example, in Rowley’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Hermione, one of Harry’s sidekicks, warns Harry, “Even in the wizarding world, hearing voices isn’t a good sign.”

For at least one week this past May, there was much conversation and discussion. Many people wondered and worried that the world was going to end on May 21 at 6:30 am. This was all because an evangelical broadcaster spoke and the media spread his words! If people weren’t worried, they were laughing and when Read More >

By |2011-09-26T08:15:45-04:00September 26, 2011|
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Parashat Nitzavim-VaYelekh

By Rabbi Robert Freedman

Two phrases vie for the honor of being the most important in the Torah, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and “Humanity was made in the divine image.” Humbly I’d like to nominate another for one of the top ten. The verse is, “For the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart to do it” (Deuteronomy 30:14). No other verse in Torah offers as strong reassuring certainty that we need not be confused or despairing about where to find life’s instruction manual.

At one time Moses protested that he was not a man of words, that for him speech was difficult and his lips were not fluent. But forty years later he preached the words of Deuteronomy. Throughout a full day he held forth, concluding by saying that the thing, the commandment, was not too far away or too difficult, “rather it is in your Read More >

By |2011-09-22T10:23:07-04:00September 22, 2011|
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Parashat Ki Tavo

By Rabbi Jaron Matlow

 

Lately I have been focusing on Theodicy, the problem of evil in the world. Over the last several years, I have experienced a number of health issues that left me on total disability. In Parashat Ekev, we are told that if we follow God s Torah, God  œwill remove all sickness from you  (Deut. 7:15). God states further  œI am your Healer  (Exodus 15:26). So naturally I ask myself the question,  œIf I m suffering all these things, am I being punished, and given the suffering of others, are they being punished? Have we not followed Torah and Halakha sufficiently? 

Our Parashah, Ki Tavo, is noted for the Tokhehot, the warnings and curses, if we don t follow Torah. In it we find Yak kha YHVH bishhin Mitzrayim uvat horim uvagarav uvehares asher lo tukhal l heirafei. Yak kha YHVH b shiga on u v ivaron u v timhon leivav,  œGod will strike you with Read More >

By |2011-09-14T12:39:38-04:00September 14, 2011|
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Parashat Ki Tetze

September 11th: Remembering to Forget, Forgetting to Remember

By Rabbi Regina L. Sandler-Phillips

 

“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way, in your going-out from Egypt….erase the memory of Amalek from under the heavens; do not forget!” (Deuteronomy 25:17, 19).

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the tragedies that shook our city, our nation and our world, the final words of this week’s Torah portion are stark: Evil can be personified, and Amalek − the personification of evil throughout the ages − must be destroyed.

Yet questions present themselves. How do we “Remember” to “erase…memory”? If memory is erased, how can we “not forget”? And how do we understand exactly “what Amalek did”?

In the original narrative, we are told only that “Amalek came and fought with Israel” (Exodus 17:8). As the story is retold in this week’s portion, we learn of Amalek that “he tailed you, all the weakened-ones behind you; and you, weary Read More >

By |2011-09-08T12:53:31-04:00September 8, 2011|
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Parashat Shoftim

Ki ata ba el-ha’aretz, asher Adonai Elohekha notein lekha-lo tilmad la’asot, keto’avot hagoyim haheim, “When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations” (Deut 18:9).

In Parashat Shoftim, the land of which Moses speaks is the Promised Land, and his warning is specified in subsequent verses. We are to stay away from human sacrificing, divination, soothsayers, enchanters, sorcerers, charmers, wizards, and necromancers. There are no shortcuts and no special intermediaries.

Moses then continues his teaching: Tamim tihyeh, im Adonai Elohekha,”Thou shalt be whole-hearted with the Lord thy God” (Deut. 18:13). We are to be “whole-hearted” with Adonai our God. The Hertz commentary (p.827) cites Rashi’s interpretation of verse 13: “Walk with Him whole-heartedly and hope in Him. Pry not into the veiled future, but accept whatever lot befalls you. Then will you be His people and His Read More >

By |2011-09-06T11:50:37-04:00September 6, 2011|
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Parashat Re’eh

By Rabbi Dorit Edut and Cantor Liat Pelman

A Dialogue on Blessings vs. “Curses“

Dorit: As we approach the month of Elul next week and thoughts of Rosh HaShanah are not far off, we are confronted by a verse in this week’s Torah portion:

“See this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin upon you this day; and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God….” (Deut.11:26-28, NewJPS translation).

How do we understand this verse really? Is this loving, all-powerful God also One who “curses” humans?

Liat: I am so grateful that you chose to put the word “curses” in quotation marks. Reading the Torah literally, as in this verse, is a turn-off for me; I relate to the saying: Life is hard, but God is good-all the time.

Dorit: Let’s look Read More >

By |2011-08-31T11:52:16-04:00August 31, 2011|
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Parashat VaEthanan

By Cantor Marcia Lane

In this second parashah in the book of Deuteronomy Moses continues his long death-bed peroration to the Israelite people. He reiterates the division of the land to the tribes, restates (with minor differences) the Aseret HaDibrot  “ commonly called the Ten Commandments  “ and states the most primary faith-statement of Judaism, the Shema. Here, in one neat package, is the legal and emotional basis for Jewish thought and practice. Creed and deed, paired in the same parashah.

In the Torah portion, Moshe tells the people of the dangers of worshipping anything other than God.  œFor your own sake, be very careful  “ since you saw no shape when Adonai, your God spoke to you in fire at Horeb  “ not to make for yourself a sculpted image. ¦  (Deut. 4:15-16). And this is such a potent theme for Moshe that he says again,  œTake care not to forget the covenant Adonai Read More >

By |2011-08-10T22:24:56-04:00August 10, 2011|
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Parashat D’varim

Vision, Lamentation, and the Question of “How?”

By Rabbi Regina L. Sandler-Phillips

The Shabbat on which the first portion of Deuteronomy is chanted from the Torah each year is called Shabbat Hazon ”the  œSabbath of Vision.  Its name comes most directly from the accompanying haftarah or prophetic reading, which proclaims “The vision of Isaiah, son of Amotz, which he envisioned over Judah and Jerusalem…  (Isaiah 1:1).

At first glance, the  œvision  of these paired Torah and haftarah readings seems to be one of impending doom more than anything else. Each reading anticipates the imminent arrival of Tisha b’Av, our Jewish day of tragedy and mourning, during which we read the book that is called Lamentations in English and Eikha in Hebrew. Read More >

By |2011-08-03T23:37:50-04:00August 3, 2011|
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Parashat Mattot

By Rabbi Katy Z. Allen

Finding Our Way Out of Helplessness

Peep! Peep! Peep! The brood of baby chicks – domesticated or wild I do not know – was scurrying and moving en mass, with loose chicks running off in every direction, peeping. They kept scurrying into the street, a busy street, and it was dark out. Desperately I tried to shoo the little guys onto the sidewalk. But they kept constantly moving back and forth and this way and that way, all the time peeping, peeping, peeping. And no mother in sight. I was terribly distressed. I didn’t want them to get run over. But I didn’t know what to do! Finally, seeing the unending nature of trying to keep them off the street, I left the chicks behind and went inside.

In this week’s parashah, God tells Moses, “Avenge the Israelite people on the Midianites” (Num. 31:1). So the Read More >

By |2011-07-21T12:16:27-04:00July 21, 2011|
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Parashat Pinhas

By Peter Levy

Parashat Pinhas

My wife, Amy, and I just returned from opening day at the URJ Eisner Camp in Great Barrington,  Massachusetts. It was wonderful to see kids gathering together and greeting each other after months of separation. They had kept in touch via Facebook and other social media over the winter, but the physical proximity was what made it special. It was heart-warming to see the campers hugging each other in greeting.However, we also learned about something called a “sideways hug.”  Apparently this is the proper way for counselors to hug the campers in order to avoid physical contact that might be construable is “inappropriate.” Yes, physical contact is potentially taboo and needs to be handled delicately.

This is in contrast to our parashah this week, Pinhas.  Here, in Numbers 27:18, Moses is told to ordain Joshua, “v’samakhta et yad’kha alav“, “and lay your hand on him.” The Read More >

By |2011-07-14T12:18:20-04:00July 14, 2011|
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Parashat Balak

By Hazzan Marcia Lane

In our parashah, we have the story of Balak, king of Moav, who sends emissaries promising wealth to a certain prophet, Bilaam son of Be’or, if Bilaam will curse the Israelites. We know Bilaam is a real prophet because the Torah says, “those who you bless are truly blessed and those you curse are cursed.” (Num. 22:6) That is, Bilaam‘s prophecies come to pass. Not only that, but we know Bilaam is on the up-and-up because he says – repeatedly – to these messengers, “I can only do what Adonai tells me.” In fact, Bilaam says, no matter how much gold and silver Balak gives, “I can do nothing small or great contrary to the word of Adonai, my God.” How extraordinary that Bilaam clearly understands that his power, his ability to bless or curse, comes directly from Read More >

By |2011-07-07T09:42:26-04:00July 7, 2011|
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Parashat Hukkat

By Simon Rosenbach

Many years ago, a friend proposed that we write a book: Management Lessons From the Torah. We never wrote the book, but this week’s parashah provides a fascinating management lesson. It involves the waters of Merivah.

We all know the story. The Israelites encamped at Kadesh and, as usual, started to complain. This time, they complained that here they were, stuck in the desert, and there was no water.

As usual, Moses went to the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, to consult God. As usual, God provided instructions. In this case, God told Moses to order a rock to produce water, and it would. Read More >

By |2011-07-05T14:33:15-04:00July 5, 2011|
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