Sefer Devarim

Vision, Lamentation, and the Question of “How?”

By Rabbi Regina L. Sandler-Phillips

The Shabbat on which the first portion of Deuteronomy is chanted from the Torah each year is called Shabbat Hazon ”the  œSabbath of Vision.  Its name comes most directly from the accompanying haftarah or prophetic reading, which proclaims “The vision of Isaiah, son of Amotz, which he envisioned over Judah and Jerusalem…  (Isaiah 1:1).

At first glance, the  œvision  of these paired Torah and haftarah readings seems to be one of impending doom more than anything else. Each reading anticipates the imminent arrival of Tisha b’Av, our Jewish day of tragedy and mourning, during which we read the book that is called Lamentations in English and Eikha in Hebrew. Read More >

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. Eventually, my father was very successful, and the company permitted (or encouraged) him to start his own agency in Plainfield, New Jersey. 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. 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 >