G-d created the world through speech, and the words with which He created us are very much like flames. “Behold, my words are like flames” (Jeremiah 23:29). Flames don’t burn unless they have fuel to consume. The same is true of G-d’s words. “For G-d your G-d is a consuming …
Read the full story »The Festival and Shabbat
Sanctity and Joy
When a Jewish festival falls on Friday, it merges directly into Shabbat. This gives us pause as we reflect on the differences between the festival and Shabbat.
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Sukkot: Earthquake in Jerusalem
Mount of Olives
On the first day of Sukkot, the Haftorah reading is from Zacharia, chapter 14. In verse four the prophet tells us that in the Messianic age, “the Mount of Olives will split at its center eastward and westward, making a huge ravine, half the mountain will move northward …
High Holiday Greetings 5774
High Holiday Greetings
We embark on a new year with excitement and trepidation. What does the new year hold for us, will it be good or bad, healthy or ill, happy or sad?
We look back to years past and know that life is a mixed bag, some years were better than …
Rosh Hashanah: The Meaning of Repetance
Return
The High Holidays are a time for Teshuva, repentance. We are meant to reflect on the things we did wrong and correct them and on the things we did well and strengthen them.
I looked up the word repentance at www.dictionary.com and found the following definition. “To feel sorry, self-reproachful, or …
Nezavim Vayelach: Relevance of Torah
Redundant
In our Parsha, the Torah provides its own coordinates. “It is not in the heaven to say, who might rise to the heaven to bring it to us nor is it across the ocean to say, who might traverse the oceans to bring it to us.”[1]
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Ki Tavo: Selfishness
Most Unwelcoming City
According to the readers of the Conde Nast travel magazine, Newark, NJ, is the unfriendliest city in the world. This dubious distinction is hotly contested by Newark’s residents, who claim that the magazine’s readers have never set foot outside of Newark’s bustling airport to visit the city, but …
Ki Tetze: Unity Saves Lives
Unity in War
In June of 1967 we saw clearly that unity saves lives. If you review the events that led to the six-day-war you will find that Egypt, Jordan and Syria, the nations that attacked Israel, led a coordinated pre-war campaign, whereas Israel was internally divided on how to address …
Shoftim: Write a Torah
Your Own Scroll
One of the six-hundred-thirteen commandments is the obligation for every Jew to write a Torah scroll. Jews that are not trained to write the Torah script may discharge their obligation by commissioning a trained scribe to write it for them.[1]
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Parsha Insights »
Chukat: The Yiddishe Mama
Miriam’s Well
Shortly after the passing of Miriam, the preeminent Yiddishe Mama, the stone that accompanied our ancestors in the desert for forty years, from which water flowed miraculously, ceased its flow. The nation realized that the water had been provided in the merit of Miriam and although Moses and Aaron …
Yearly Cycle »
Passover: Removing the Chametz
Before Pesach we have a flurry of rituals aimed at ridding our homes of Chametz. One ritual layers over the next creating a labyrinth of overlapping traditions that leaves one dizzy. The following article is intended to make sense of the seeming chaos.The Torah prohibits not only eating but also …
Concepts »
Balak: The Perennial Critic
How to Treat a Critic
There are those who thrive on highlighting other people’s faults. It gives them such pleasure, they can hardly contain themselves. If they can’t find fault they drive themselves incessantly until they find it and failing that, they grow despondent. Mostly these people don’t intend harm, they …
Rabbi’s Desk »
What Can We Do?
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 …
