Learning Through the Plague
If you don't have time to read this right now, please note that we are starting a new schedule of online classes now offered by rabbis in virtual classrooms as a result of the current quarantine. Please access the schedule, still under construction, and find a new...
The Socially Distant Seder
This Passover is going to be different. Over the last few weeks the world has plunged into an existence I can only describe as Biblical times. No longer do we wonder how a nation can be stricken with a plague, whether that is pestilence, frogs, fiery hail, or the...
A Voluntary Offering, and a Second Chance
This week's reading, the first chapters of Vayikra (Leviticus), discusses various types of voluntary offerings that a person could bring in the Holy Temple — whether from oxen, sheep, doves, or flour. While fulfilling obligations always came first, a person had the...
A Separated Shabbos, Together
In this week's reading, Moshe gathers the people together -- and talks to them about Shabbos. "For 6 days you will do your labor, and the seventh will be holy for you, a Sabbath of Sabbaths to G-d... And you will not pass a fire through all your settlements on the...
All in the Family
Celebrating Purim, the rabbis tell us, entails four things: hearing the reading of the Megillah (the Scroll of Esther), having a festive meal, giving gifts to the poor, and sending food packages to friends. Those are the four commandments of the day. The first two...
Colors of Joy
The new Jewish month of Adar began yesterday, ushering in the joyous holidays of Purim and Passover. In this spirit the Sages of the Talmud have said "When Adar arrives, we increase in happiness." We don't think of happiness, true happiness, as something to be...
Let It Go Through You
In this week's reading, Moshe and the Jewish nation gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai to receive the Torah. Judaism teaches us that along with the Written Torah printed in every Bible, God also taught Moshe the Oral Law, giving much more detail about the...
Keep Singing
"I sing to G-d, for He is exalted..." (Exodus 15:1) After Moshe (Moses) and the Jewish People saw the great miracle of the splitting of the sea, their salvation from the oncoming chariots of Pharaoh and the Egyptian army, and the total destruction of that army, they...
Who Is Fit to Serve?
Through the ten plagues and the Exodus, G-d demonstrated that He and He alone is the complete authority, the King of kings. If it is a privilege to serve in the cabinet of a world leader, then how much greater is it to be a servant to the Al-mighty? Pondering this...
Let’s Talk About Retirement
What do you hope to be doing when you're eighty years old? In last week's Torah reading, the story of the enslavement of the Jewish people in Egypt and their ultimate redemption began. The key figures in this story are Moshe and Aharon (Moses and Aaron), who were...
Do You Love Your Luggage?
What do you find more restful - relaxing on a couch, or carrying packages? It seems like a silly question, right? "He saw that rest was good, that the land was pleasant, and he tilted his shoulder to take a burden. (Gen. 49:15)" This is how Jacob, on his deathbed,...
Spirited Celebration
Joseph's tears flowed as he wept on his father Jacob's shoulder. It had been 22 years from the time Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers, only to learn that he had been tragically devoured by a wild desert beast. Jacob was inconsolable for 22 years, but his...
