3 11, 2011

Parashat Lekh Lekha

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

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 >

25 10, 2011

Parashat Noah

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

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 >

15 12, 2010

Parashat Vayehi

By ahsilver|2010-12-15T00:13:44-05:00December 15, 2010|

By Simcha Raphael

WithÂ 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,Â distinguishedÂ 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 >

10 12, 2010

Parashat Vayigash

By ahsilver|2010-12-10T00:17:59-05:00December 10, 2010|

The Healing Power of Tears

By Rabbi Ziona Zelazo

CharlesÂ Dickens, in his comedy bookÂ Great Expectations wrote:Â “Heaven knows, we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.”Â I take crying as a given fact in my life as I cry for joy, for pain and out of fear.Â IÂ was taught that it is acceptable to cry if you are a little girl or even a mature woman.Â 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 >

22 11, 2010

Parashat Vayishlah

By ahsilver|2010-11-22T12:49:11-05:00November 22, 2010|

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 >

11 11, 2010

Parashat VaYetzei

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

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 >

4 11, 2010

Parashat Toldot

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

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 >

13 10, 2010

Parashat Lekh Lekha

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

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 >

7 10, 2010

Parashat Noah

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

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 >

28 09, 2010

Parashat Bereshit

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

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 >

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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