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...
The connections between this week’s Torah portion and our own lives scream out at us! As I write these words, we are living through a time of grave uncertainty for the State of Israel and the Jewish people all over the world. The events of the past twelve days have...
PARASHAT R’EIH: SEE, THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE! CENTRAL SANCTUARY IN A DIVINELY ORDAINED PLACE! SHIR KI CONTINUES THE 3000 YEAR JEWISH MUSICAL TRADITION- FIRST REHEARSAL: AUGUST 15, AT 7 PM. In this week’s Torah portion, Moses continues his third and final summary of G-d’s commandments by staging a massive...
Parashat D’varim: Beginning the Fifth Book of Torah Summer Jewish Life in the Poconos This past Shabbat morning, I chanted the prayer announcing the new Hebrew month of Av in our summer congregation, the Hemlock Farms Jewish Fellowship. For 32 years, Ellen and I have spent our summer vacation in...
A DOUBLE PORTION DESCRIBING PROFOUND PRESSURE ON MOSES AND HIS ABRUPT REACTION. All over the world, Jews are reading two Sidrot/Portions this coming Shabbat, the double portion of Hukkat/Balak, chapters 19-25 in B’midbar/Numbers. The Israelites are approaching the end of their 40 year march in the desert on the way...
This Shabbat, we begin the reading of the fourth book of the Torah, the Book of Numbers. In Hebrew, the book is called B’Midbar/In The Wilderness. Both the English and Hebrew names of the fourth Torah book teach us about the character and contents of this volume. The English name,...
This Shabbat, we again read a double portion, Tazria/M’tzora. We are introduced to the very complex and difficult concept in the religious life of Bnai Yisrael/Children of Israel: ritual purity and impurity. These categories are strange for us as 21st century Jews. There are very traditional members of the Jewish...
Double Sidrah of Biblical “Legos,” Fabrics, Equipment, and Instructions for Assembly. SHIR KI Returns to Verizon Hall! We have arrived at the end of Sefer Sh’mot, the Book of Exodus. In Synagogues around the world, two Torah portions are read this coming Shabbat morning. We have learned that there are...
Parashat Mishpatim: The First Corpus of Torah Laws; Composer Benjamin Steinberg, Z”L; The Jews of Panama Last Shabbat, Jews the world over studied Parashat Yitro, including the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments function as a transition from beginning Jewish history to Biblical laws teaching the Jewish people how to behave...
Parashat Va-Eira: Four Divine Promises of Redemption And The First Six Plagues. Holocaust Remembrance Shabbat. The Torah portion of Va-eira “And I Appeared (to Avraham)” is the first of four Sidrot/portions depicting G-d’s most active and aggressive intervention in the lives of the Jewish people, encompassing the Ten Plagues, the...
