Parashat Shoftim: Magistrates and Officials. New High Holy Day Songs. “Hush of Midnight” at KI and AJ Selichot Service: Saturday evening, September 28th The Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land after the completion of their 40 years of wandering in the desert. Moses presents his Third Discourse to...
MOSES PLEADS TO ENTER THE PROMISED LAND. THE SECOND DISCOURSE, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AND SH’MA YISRAEl. TISHA B’AV This week’s portion is incredibly consequential for Moses, for B’nai Yisrael, and for all of us. We are in the middle of Moses’ First Discourse as he reviews the history and laws...
The Torah Communicates Jewish Truths in So Many Different Ways. More Thoughts on our Children in Jewish Summer Camps When Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses our Teacher, presented the Torah to the Jewish people, he gave us a document filled with so many different kinds of teachings and literary styles! Moses and...
The Israelites Begin the March to the Promised Land, and Our Children and Grandchildren Begin their March to Summer Camps As we begin B’haalot’cha, the third portion of B’Midbar/Numbers, the Israelites are camped at the foot of Mount Sinai for a full year after G-d Almighty had given the Torah...
Public Reading of Megilat Haatzmaut-Israel’s Declaration of Independence This Shabbat, we read the Torah Portion of EMOR, the eighth portion in the book of Vayikra/Leviticus, 21:1–24:23. The Israelites are in the middle of their wandering in the Sinai Desert on their 40-year journey to the Promised Land. The second section...
This coming Shabbat, the Shabbat immediately preceding Passover is called SHABBAT HAGADOL, the Great Sabbath. Rabbis traditionally deliver long sermons about the laws of Passover, what is kosher and what is not, how our behaviors change during the Passover festival, how we should conduct our Sedarim (plural of Seder), and...
The Iron Swords War: How We Are All Affected! B’Yachad N’Natzeach/Together We Shall Be Victorious! On Tuesday morning, Ellen and I attended a profoundly moving and truly painful session at Gratz College presented by Esther Marcus and Gal Horev, two survivors of October 7th Massacre. It was overwhelmingly difficult and...
“Acheinu” Resounds Throughout Our Community and the Jewish World! This week’s portion teaches us about G-d’s requirement to bring gifts to the community’s leadership for the community’s maintenance. Moses ascends Mount Sinai for a second time in order to learn what G-d expects of him and the Israelites. G-d gives...
We are in the middle of the most dramatic, most pivotal, most intense, most action filled, and most consequential Torah portions in the Torah! The portion of Bo is the third section in the book of Exodus. We learn about the eighth, ninth, tenth and final plagues that the Almighty...
Parashat MIketz-Joseph, Lighting the Hanukkah Candles for The Eighth Night, and Candles as a Symbol of Shalom Bayit/Family Peace In our Torah reading cycle, we are in the middle of the Joseph stories in the Book of Bereshit/Genesis. Joseph, the son of the Jacob, the third Jewish patriarch, has been...
