וְיֵעָשׂוּ כֻלָּם אֲגֻדָּה אֶחָת לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם
וְיֵעָשׂוּ כֻלָּם אֲגֻדָּה אֶחָת לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם
By Simcha Raphael
With Parashat Vayehi, the Book of Genesis reaches its grand finale. Jacob and his extended family are gathered in the land of Egypt, and first, the illustrious Patriarch himself dies; then, subsequently the complex, distinguished life of Joseph comes to an end.
What do we learn from these concluding chapters of Genesis that can offer us a relevant model for dealing more openly with dying, death and grief in our families and communities? Read More >
The Healing Power of Tears
By Rabbi Ziona Zelazo
Charles Dickens, in his comedy book Great Expectations wrote: “Heaven knows, we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.” I take crying as a given fact in my life as I cry for joy, for pain and out of fear. I was taught that it is acceptable to cry if you are a little girl or even a mature woman. Unfortunately, some people, especially men, are often ashamed or afraid to cry because of the Western cultural norm which perceives crying as a sign of weakness. Boys are told, “Big boys don’t cry,” or, “Crying is for girls.” However, psychologists today reassure us that for both men and women, tears are a sign of courage, strength, and authenticity. Tears are the body’s release valve for stress sadness, grief, anxiety, and frustration.
It was no surprise, as I read last Read More >
By Rabbi Bob Freedman
At the end of this week’s parashah, Vayishlah, we learn that Jacob came back to his home, the land where his fathers had lived (Genesis 31:3). Specifically, he returned to Beit-El, the place where he first encountered God, the birthplace of his spiritual existence. What else is “home” but our spiritual center? We may bathe, sleep, and eat in a house to which we acquire the right of possession, but our home is the place from which flows the source of our connection and wholeness.
Each of us finds our “home” in our own way. The three patriarchs, whose paths to being paradigmatic humans were very different, are our examples. Abraham found his home by going out from his origins to a brand new place. God gave Isaac the divine blessing when he re-opened the wells that his father had dug, metaphorically reclaiming wisdom and nurture that had been lost Read More >
By Sanford OlshanskyÂ
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 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 Alan Abraham Kay
On Wednesday, June 23rd, 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 >
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. God “inhale[s] the soothing fragrance” (Gen. 8:21, translation from Read More >
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-reaching environmental ethic from these stories – and in particular from Genesis 1. 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. 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 >
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. 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. 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 >
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. 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. 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 >
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