Parashat Nitzavim-VaYelekh

Nitzavim-VaYelekh, our double portion for this week, includes the 7^th Haftarah in a series of Haftarot of Comfort and Consolation, read on the 7 Shabbatot following Tisha B Av. It is read on the Shabbat just preceding Rosh Hashanah as we are entering the period of intense personal introspection and accounting that is the essence of the Days of Awe.

The Haftarah comes from the Book of Isaiah, and is generally assumed to have been written by a prophet who lived in exile in Babylonia after the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Â As with many of the prophetic writings, he writes about national issues, specifically God s redemption of the Israelites and their promised triumphant return to Zion after generations of exile.

The prophet is comforting the exiles with the assurance that God has forgiven their sins (presented in earlier writings) and that they will be returning to Zion, to Jerusalem. Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-09-01T16:25:12-04:00September 1, 2010|

Parashat Ki Tavo

By Steve Altarescu

If Deuteronomic theology has not troubled you so far, Ki Tavo will now challenge you as it pushes the concept of reward and punishment to the limit. For the purpose of review here are some highlights of this theology from earlier in the Book of Deuteronomy.

œGive heed to the laws ¦that you may live to enter and occupy the land. (Deut: 4:1)

œObey ¦that it may go well with you. (4:25)

œGod ¦keeps the covenant faithfully ¦of those who love God and keep God s commandments but instantly requites destruction on those who reject Him. (7:9-10)

œIf you do obey these rules ¦God will maintain ¦the covenant. (7:12)

œSee, this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing if you obey the commandments ¦and curses if you do not obey the commandments. (11:26)

In summary, the Israelites were told that if they followed the commandments they would be blessed and rewarded, and if they did not they would be cursed and Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-08-24T18:26:39-04:00August 24, 2010|

Parashat Ki Tetze

By Rabbi Leonard Levin

A famous midrash tells how Moses argued with the angels that the Torah, though a creature of heaven, was destined for use on earth. œDo you have urges to murder, to commit adultery, to steal? We earthly creatures, who are imperfect, need laws to tame our urges and work for self-improvement. You are already perfect! It is we who need the Torah (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 88b-89a).

Ahad Ha-Am, similarly in his essay œPriest and Prophet, contrasted two currents in Biblical thought. The prophet had a counsel of perfection, and dreamed of a society where justice would flow like a mighty stream and the lion would lie down with the lamb. The priest proposed a practical compromise, incorporating as much of the ideal as his contemporaries could digest, moving society forward one step at a time. Read More >

By Rabbi Len Levin|2010-08-18T20:54:26-04:00August 18, 2010|

Parashat Shoftim

This week we are privileged to read a parashah that covers a multitude of disparate subjects, including the laws of royalty and magicians, but is introduced by the subject relating to the parashah’s title: Shoftim – Judges. In the first verse, we are enjoined to appoint justices; and then in the next two verses we, and not the professional judges to be appointed, are given a set of commands of how we are to apply various concepts of justice. What is it we are prohibited from doing: take bribes, and show favoritism. As to the latter prohibition, Torah does not identify the likely recipients of favoritism. Nevertheless, the natural inclination is to conclude that it is the powerful and the rich who are to be its likely beneficiaries. But does this “natural” conclusion comport with our present society?

This past television season marked the 20th, and last, season of Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-08-11T19:47:39-04:00August 11, 2010|

Parashat Re’eh

This week’s Torah portion begins with these words, “See, this day I present before you a blessing and a curse. Blessing, that 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….” (Deut.11:26-28) Why does it begin with the word “see”? The sentence would stand on its own without it. What are we to “see”?

Deuteronomy is in essence a review of where we have been. It asks us to examine our past actions as well as look ahead to the future. It requires us to have vision, the ability to “see” with all of our being in order to discern the blessings from the curses. As we get ready to enter the Land, God wants us to open our eyes and our hearts to the possibilities that lie ahead, learning from the mistakes that we made along Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-08-03T17:08:12-04:00August 3, 2010|

Parashat Ekev

By Sandy Horowitz

Towards the end of my high school senior year, I woke up one morning with an intense neck spasm, barely able move my head without severe pain. It subsided after awhile, thanks to painkillers and an embarrassingly unattractive neck collar.

Viewing this incident as a physical mirror of my mental state at the time, it s clear that the timing wasn t coincidental “ I wasn t feeling ready for whatever might lie ahead as I stepped into adulthood.

The term k sheh-oref, or œstiff-necked , which appears several times in Ekev and in the Exodus text which is referenced in this week s Torah portion, also speaks to us about the question of our ancestors readiness to meet their future, as they prepared to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land. Read More >

By Cantor Sandy Horowitz|2010-07-28T11:41:23-04:00July 28, 2010|

Parashat Devarim: To our Children’s Children’s Children (With apologies to the Moody Blues, 1969)

By Simon Rosenbach

My father left social work in early 1951 to sell life insurance in New Jersey for a wonderful (and now defunct) company called the New England Life Insurance Company.Â Eventually, my father was very successful, and the company permitted (or encouraged) him to start his own agency in Plainfield, New Jersey.Â Agencies were known by the name of the general agent in charge, so my father’s agency was the Max Rosenbach Agency.

Alas, the New England had a mandatory, retirement policy, so my father had to surrender his agency when he turned 65. He worked hard, built this very successful business, and now had to relinquish it.Â But family dynasties in the insurance business were common, and surely one of Max’ three sons (sad to say, but daughters were not considered in those days) would want to inherit this multi-million dollar company, Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-07-13T16:24:23-04:00July 13, 2010|

Parashat Mattot-Masei

By Rabbi Danny Horwitz

My wife wasn’t planning to marry me. She was back from kibbutz, saving up money in order to make aliyah. Although I had spent a year studying in Israel, as a newly ordained rabbi I was not a good candidate for aliyah and we both knew it. I loved Israel, but I believed my future was in America. Something changed her mind, and twenty-eight years and four mostly grown children later, we are still together and back in the region where we both started out.

Maybe I should have changed my plans. Maybe I should now. That’s the challenge of the Torah, at least if one takes it personally: …And you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it. (Num. 33:53) I do accept that it is the land of our ancestors, Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-07-07T13:47:17-04:00July 7, 2010|

Parashat Pinchas

By Hayley Siegel

This week’s parashah, Pinchas commences with a description of Pinchas’ reception of the unique brit shalom (a covenant of peace) and a priestly role from God. And yet, despite the fact that Pinchas receives these accolades and the entire parashah bears his name, we witness the momentous occasion when the tribe’s leadership is transferred instead from Moses to Joshua at the end of the parashah. If we want to discover why Joshua ended up succeeding Moses, we need to gain more insight into these men’s personalities and analyze their different styles of leadership.

In order for us to understand Pinchas, we need to backtrack for a bit to last week’s parashah, Balak. As our text describes, God afflicts the Israelites with a plague after they perform idolatry and illicit sexual dalliances with the Moabite people at Shittim. As the Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-06-30T13:49:06-04:00June 30, 2010|

Parashat Balak

By Rabbi H. Rafael Goldstein

In the middle of all the kvetching in the Book of the Wilderness, Bemidbar, we have a king who commissions a special curse for the people of Israel, and ends up paying to bless them. We have a talking donkey, working for a guy who is supposed to be a prophet, who has a vision of G!d which the prophet completely misses. The Torah portion Balak is comic relief when we need it most!

Balak, the king of Moab, wanted desperately to curse the Israelites. So he called in his expert for blessings and curses, Balaam, and ordered him to come up with some good curses. Balaam refused, but agreed after making a deal with G!d that he would do exactly what G!d would tell him. Read More >

By ahsilver|2010-06-22T14:10:41-04:00June 22, 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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