Parashat VaYetzei

By Sanford OlshanskyÂ

For over a year I’ve played “Stump the Rabbi” with the Hebrew School students at the temple where I work. On some of my classroom visits they have an opportunity to ask me the toughest Jewish questions they can think of. Students who ask me a question that I can’t answer get a prize. Most questions lead to meaningful discussions. One of the best this year was “Why doesn’t God show God’s self to us?” I gave the students a number of answers, suggesting that two questions behind this question might be “How do we know that God really exists?” and, if God exists, “Where can we find God?”

The beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Vayeitzei talks about how our ancestor Jacob, from whom we get the name Israel, found God. Many people today doubt the existence Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-11-11T18:11:48-05:00November 11, 2010|

Parashat Toldot

By Rabbi Isaac Mann

Of the three Patriarchs, Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov, we know the least about Yitzhak (Isaac), around whom this week s Torah portion is centered. Unlike his father or his son, the Torah tells us precious little about Yitzhak s life or his encounters with others. Even where we have a somewhat lengthy story regarding Yitzhak s blessings of his sons, Yaakov and Eisav (Esau), the emphasis seems to be more on Yaakov and the manner in which he received the blessing than it is on his father Yitzhak.

Despite the dearth of incidents to work with, one thing is clear from what the Torah does tell us of Yitzhak, and that is that he had a communication problem. Whatever the reason may be, Yitzhak did not do a great job communicating with his family or with those around him. Regarding the latter, we only have Read More >

By Rabbi Isaac Mann|2010-11-04T11:57:27-04:00November 4, 2010|

Parashat Lekh Lekha

By Rabbi Alan Abraham Kay

On Wednesday, June 23^rd, two days before my final service as rabbi of Temple Beth Emeth of Mount Sinai, I was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer. As my primary care physician gave me the news, I held my telephone in my left hand and ran the fingers of my right hand fiercely through my hair and asked myself, “What do I do now?” I had a choice. I could collapse in fear and shake with anger and crawl into a dark hole. But I chose instead to answer myself with, “Go forward.” I could not return to the life I led before my doctor’s call; I could only go forward to the life that lay ahead. I knew I would not go forward alone. I would have my wife and daughters and their families, my Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-10-13T18:46:05-04:00October 13, 2010|

Parashat Noah

In this week’s Torah portion, God, having concluded that Humanity 1.0 has not worked out at all, decides to start over again. God chooses the most righteous man, Noah. Our rabbis disagree on whether Noah was not particularly righteous, just more so than everyone else at the time, or whether Noah would have been considered righteous no matter what his generation. Either way, Noah and his family are chosen to be the humans that will repopulate the world. God causes there to be a great flood that covers the whole world, killing every human and animal that lives on land, so that only Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark with them survive.

Upon emerging from the ark, Noah builds an altar and makes an offering to God.Â God “inhale[s] the soothing fragrance” (Gen. 8:21, translation from Read More >

By Rabbi Heidi Hoover|2010-10-07T16:26:13-04:00October 7, 2010|

Parashat Bereshit

SevenÂ Principles of a BiblicalÂ Environmental Ethic

While many people delight in the high drama of the first stories of the Bible in this weeks’ parashah, we can also derive a profound and far-reachingÂ environmental ethic from these stories – and in particular from Genesis 1.Â Outlined below are 7 principles of an environmental ethic found embedded in our first creation story.

1. Integrity of all living things

Everything that is created-light; the sky and water; earth, grasses and fruit trees; sun and stars; days and years; fish, sea monsters and birds; crawly creatures, wild animals and men and women-is called “good.” Each has integrity and value by virtue of its very existence, and each owes its existence to God.Â We human beings are not called to assign value to the creatures-this is God’s job, and herein lies the sacred value of Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-09-28T19:03:33-04:00September 28, 2010|

Simhat Torah: The Rebirth of the Word

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

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

Shemini Atzeret

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

Sh’mini Read More >

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

Yom Kippur

By Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein

Ashamnu, Bagadnu, gazalnu, dabarnu dophi ¦..

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

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

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

Rosh HaShanah

By Rabbi Katy Allen

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

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

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

Parashat Ha’azinu

By Michael Kasper

How do we make sense of God as elegant, majestic, and breathtaking in one moment and vindictive, jealous, and consumed in the next?Â Is there a force more cunning than God shows himself to be in this week’s parashah?

There are only two places in all of Torah where Moses recites or sings extensive poetry – Shirat ha-Yam (Song of the Sea) and Ha’azinu (Give Ear) which is also known as Shirat Moshe (Song of Moses).Â And since the Hebrew word for song or poem is the same, shir, it is as if a heavenly light is particularly shown to direct our attention and focus our minds.Â We are left to imagine the voice of Moses, its timbre, timing, resonance, and feeling.Â And we are left to speculate what state of emotion he could possibly have been in as he Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-09-08T10:57:04-04:00September 8, 2010|

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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