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 Doug Alpert|2012-06-21T14:03:38-04:00June 21, 2012|

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 ahsilver|2012-06-07T22:39:39-04:00June 7, 2012|

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:Â “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.Â For we come in different denominations, with differing views on what our tradition teaches.Â This has been true for centuries.Â The Pharisees held that the soul lives on after death; the Sadducees held the opposite.Â Read More >

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

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 Rabbi Len Levin|2012-05-24T21:01:33-04:00May 24, 2012|

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 Rabbi Ariann Weitzman|2012-05-17T19:42:24-04:00May 17, 2012|

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, 13^th 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 ahsilver|2012-05-09T13:53:07-04:00May 9, 2012|

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 ahsilver|2012-05-03T21:12:10-04:00May 3, 2012|

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 ahsilver|2012-04-26T23:02:50-04:00April 26, 2012|

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 ahsilver|2012-04-19T17:37:22-04:00April 19, 2012|

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

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

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

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