The Torah portion for this week, Terumah (Gift-offering), from Exodus 25 discusses the building of the first sanctuary of the Jewish people, a tent like structure, built, dissembled, carried and built again, numerous times during the Hebrews forty years in the desert. Its plan and utensils became the basis for...

Which came first – the hatred or the laws? Last Shabbat morning I stood on the side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge where over 50 years ago police and angry citizens probably occupied that very spot. We discussed civil rights leaders who are depicted on a mural as the students...

This week’s Torah portion, Yitro, is one of the few that names a specific person. “Yitro” or “Jethro” is Moses’ father-in-law, and is an extremely important figure to this story, which is about Moses’ leadership style and how we will eventually form a system of government that does not completely...

This year Tu BiShvat (15th of Shevat) or Jewish Arbor Day takes place on Monday, February 10, 2020. Its origins are found in the discussions of the early rabbis about the Jewish calendar. The followers of Shammai declared that the first day of the month of Shevat to be “the...