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Healing the Great Divide

April 16, 2026 – 8:50 pm | Comments Off37 views

This week’s Torah portion speaks of the mysterious lesions that appeared on the skin of those who trafficked in gossip. Their punishment was at once severe and precise: they were cast into isolation for up to three weeks, until their affliction healed.
The Torah enumerates many forms of ritual impurity. Some …

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Articles tagged with: convert

Yitro: The Truth Lover

January 27, 2018 – 11:44 pm | Comments Off3,451 views

Nothing, But the Truth
Have you ever noticed that there is an entire portion in the Torah named after a proselyte? And not just any portion, but the portion that describes the Ten Commandments. Why was this portion named after Jethro, a proselyte?
Our sages explained that this was a tribute to …

Lech Lecha: The Convert’s Soul

October 6, 2013 – 5:58 am | Comments Off9,472 views

No Fear
On one of my visits to Israel a dear friend took me on a tour of the ruins of Shiloh. He showed me the remnants of a huge stone wall atop a massive hill and described how formidable the fortress appeared to lone travelers at the bottom of the …

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Vayera: Your Daily Sacrifice

One Or A Thousand
Which is harder, death by execution or death by a thousand cuts? Chananiah MIshael and Azariah were pious Jews held captive in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar offered them a choice between idol worship and death. They chose death and were thrown into a cauldron. Miraculously they survived, but the …

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Yearly Cycle »

Shemot: There is Always an Option

Only in America
High over the skies of Ohio I engaged my seat mate in discussion. His father is Protestant, his mother is Anglican and he, an earnest family man, wants to join the Anglican church. However, the only young congregation in his neighborhood with facilities for children is that of …

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Concepts »

Shemini: Silence is Golden

Aaron
When Aaron experienced the tragic loss of two sons, he responded with silence. He didn’t accept with silence, he replied with silence. The Torah says, “Vayidom Aharaon,” Aaron fell silent.[1] At first he cried, but later, fell silent.[2] It wasn’t a passive silence, he wrestled with himself to achieve it.
For …

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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 …

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