I was walking with a friend, one Shabbat, and as we reached the crosswalk, he bent to push the button to stop the traffic. I reminded him it was Shabbat, when we don’t use electronics. Instead, I suggested we relax patiently and chat until the light changes. It was Shabbat …
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I am very glad to give this endorsement to Rabbi Lazer Gurkow, whom I have known for more than four years, and to whose sermons it is always a delight to listen. Rabbi Gurkow draws out, in each Dvar Torah, a fascinating, wide ranging and profound perspective that never fails to stimulate thought, in the …
It’s What We Bring Home That Counts
Life is a journey with stations along the way, some more comfortable than others. It is when we settle in to the comfort of those stations that we often forget we are in mid journey.
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Fortuitous Beginnings
Our Parsha begins with the many restrictions placed upon Kohanim, the priestly class.
They are forbidden, with rare exceptions, to attend funerals lest they become ritually impure. They are restricted in whom they may marry. They are forbidden to shave or to mutilate themselves. This is because they have an …
Emerge
Four days after Yom Kippur we take our show on the road. We emerge from our synagogue and home and go out to the Sukkah (outdoor hut covered in foliage). To come out means to emerge from the doors that enclose us in and the locks that hold us back. …
These past two days have been the most difficult for our people in the last fifty years. It was Simchat Torah, a time for rejoicing, yet it was a time of horror. Nearly a thousand members of our family were brutally murdered, more than a hundred were taken hostage, and …
