B’ha-a-lo-techa: The March Begins, Miriam’s Nastiness, Moses’ Verbal Prayer for Her Good Health, and To Bigotry No Sanction As we begin the reading of B’haalotecha, the third portion of B’Midbar/Numbers, the Israelites remain encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai. They stay at this location for a full year after...

This week, we read a double Torah portion. In the Jewish calendar as established by the Masoretes, the Rabbinic scholars living in Safed in the seventh and eighth centuries of the Common Era, there are 54 Torah portions. In the Jewish lunar/solar year, there are 50 weeks. On four Shabbatot...

This coming weekend is an auspicious time for Jews the world over! This Shabbat is called Shabbat Hagadol/The Great Shabbat! The requisite Torah portion is Tzav, the second Sidrah in the book of VaYikra/Leviticus. At the end of Shabbat on Saturday evening, we go directly into the Passover Seder! And...

The portion Terumah contains several ideas that are incredibly relevant to us today. This Shabbat we are reading the seventh portion of Sh’mot/Exodus. The dramatic and momentous events of the previous weeks’ Sidrot/portions have now happened. The disparate collection of former slaves have come together as Am Yisrael, the Nation...

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, and tenth and final plagues that the...

We have arrived at the Torah portion of Miketz/The End (of two years’ time), and the drama of our Torah based personalities is intense and complex! The portion opens with the famous story of Pharaoh’s dreams. Pharaoh has two dreams that neither he nor his advisors can fully understand and...

I am so proud that my beloved Eshet Hayil, Ellen, is being honored during Shabbat Services this coming Shabbat evening, beginning at 6:00 p.m. Ellen has had a stellar career as KI religious school educator since 1981. For the past 12 years, she has served as director of KI Library...

This Shabbat, we read the portion of Chayei Sarah, the fifth Sidrah of Bereshit/Genesis, beginning with chapter 23. We are deeply immersed in the history of the patriarchal period. Despite the title of the portion, “Sarah’s Lifetime…,” the Sidrah opens with the death of the First Matriarch, Sarah, at age...

We are beginning just the third Sidrah/portion in the Torah this coming Shabbat, and we are already immersed in the formative history of the Jewish people. In the opening verse of this intense portion, Abram, our first forefather, receives his call from G-d Almighty. We know virtually nothing about the...

After three weeks of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, filled with major Jewish Holidays, we have finally arrived at the last, the joyous holiday of Simchat Torah. On this holiday we celebrate both the completion of the annual cycle of Torah readings and the beginning, once again, of reading the...