Our Torah portion this week begins with a manual on lighting the lamps of the first ever synagogue: ‘When you light the lamps, let seven lamps give light at the front… and Aaron did so, lighting the lamps at the front as God commanded… Each lampstand was a hammered work...
Ecclesiastes teaches that ‘to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.’ We are very much in the season of milestones. Over these coming weeks we will watch as our children and grandchildren graduate from high school and college. Some will move on from middle...
Our Torah portion this week will note that on each night of their journey across the wilderness the twelve tribes would all camp beneath their own flag: “The Israelites shall each camp with his flag, under the banners of their ancestral house; they shall camp around the Tent of Meeting”...
Just before writing these words, I sent notice to the group that was to go with me to Israel this summer that our trip must be postponed. There is too much uncertainty. Too much remains unsure. Our trip I fear would be enshrouded in fear and angst. I pray we...
As you read this, I am on my way to Atlanta with KI teens. We will spend this weekend exploring the American south as we study the history of the civil rights movement. We will not only learn about Rosa Parks and the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we...
It feels like we are living in a whirlwind. War rages half a world away. The climate fluctuates once and again. The economy is hardly stable. ICE wreaks havoc in cities across our nation. Hate rears its head in the form of antisemitism, racism, transphobia, and xenophobia. There is bullying...
Once again, missiles are falling on Israeli homes. Once again, our heart is in the east. And – once again – we feel competing emotions deep within us. Since October 7, 2023, I have written once again about cognitive dissonance, the idea that multiple things can be true at the...
Four years ago, Mikaela Shiffrin’s Olympic dreams died amid a series of painful events. The most decorated skier in history, she was – according to the experts – guaranteed to come away with a host of medals. After all, she had been winning races all her life, beating competitors older than...
This week we find the first mention of the Ten Commandments in the Torah. These ten teachings have shaped much of Jewish life for generations. They guide our days. They urge us to remember that there is one God, a singular God who took us from bondage to freedom. They...
At services tomorrow night we will mark International Holocaust Shabbat. We will do this as America, a nation we love and choose to call home, challenges the many tenants we take away from that most gruesome episode of our history. Think of the enduring messages of the Holocaust. We say...
