Dear Friends, It is so easy to take our lives for granted. It is so easy to forget our humble origins. But, the Torah reminds us again and again that we are all descendants of slaves – that our ancestors experienced the bondage of Egypt and the bitter reality of oppression. Our Torah portion includes Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, Justice, peace and love are the foundational values of Jewish living. We are supposed to love God with all our soul, with all our might, with all our being. It is not clear exactly how we do that, but, if you ask me…..it is even harder to imagine how we are supposed to Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, Undoubtedly, both our sense of self and our “vision” are molded by the sights and sounds that we absorb from our surroundings. Our Torah portion, Re’eh [which in Hebrew means: See…], acknowledges the power of what we see and what we hear to shape our lives, as it is written: “See, I have Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, I hope you will join us for services this weekend, both on Friday night and on Shabbat morning, when we will celebrate Shabbat and the bar mitzvah of Brad Rubenstein! Mazal Tov to Brad and to his entire family! It is amazing how deeply the weekly Torah portion seems to touch our very Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, If we have ever had issues with our Torah, it was probably with our double Torah portion of Mattot-Mas’ey. What difficult passages are those? Let’s start with the verses that describe the power of a husband to annul the vows of his wife. If people’s words are meant to be taken seriously, why Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, Standing up for what is right, especially if it might be seen as self-serving, takes courage. It takes determination. It takes faith – faith that our actions can lead to positive change. And, in order for change to happen peacefully, it also takes leadership that is willing to listen respectfully. It takes leadership Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, When people ask one another: “How are you?” most often we say: “I’m fine!” and we leave it at that. But, are we really fine? Let’s learn from Korach, the quintessential rebel in the Biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt. Korach complained to Moses, saying: “Why are you taking leadership of our Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, The wonderful thing about being Jewish is that it is okay to complain. It is okay to speak one’s mind. It is even okay to complain to God and about God. It’s okay to complain. Having said that….our Parsha teaches us that when complaining becomes a way of life and the focus of Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, This has been such a difficult week with the video of the despicable murder of George Floyd coming on the footsteps of our already anxious state of mind due to the Coronavirus. This has been such a difficult week not only because of the graphic video of the brutality, but also because, if Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, Still counting…. What are we counting? At times, we are counting the days of Corona….At times, we are counting the days of the Omer. At times, all that we are counting blurs into a sense of needing to count our days and to make every day count. As Jews, we are still counting Continue Reading »
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