• The Joy and Opportunity of the High Holidays

    It is almost Rosh Hashanah and we all approach the High Holidays with different feelings and perspectives.  Some are worried about the coming year and hope that prayer will secure a healthy and prosperous year for them.  Others want to fulfill their chivuvim – obligations and mitzvot – by praying, hearing the shofar and fasting. …

  • From Exile to Redemption: The Power of Transition

    This week’s double parsha of Bihar and Bechukotai begins with shemitah, the commandment to let the land lay fallow every seven years.   One of the purposes of this mitzvah is for us to realize that we are not in charge.  We do not make the rain fall or the crops grow, nor did we…

  • Embracing Change on the Road to Redemption

    This week’s double parsha of Bihar and Bechukotai begins with shemitah, the commandment to let the land lay fallow every seven years.   One of the purposes of this mitzvah is for us to realize that we are not in charge.  We do not make the rain fall or the crops grow, nor did we…

  • Building Community Through Exile and Renewal

    This week’s parsha, Ki Tavo, begins with the first fruits.   The Torah tells us that the farmer in the Land of Israel must bring a basket of the first fruits of the orchard to the Temple, give them to the Kohen to wave, and make the following declaration:  “An Aramean tried to destroy my…

  • The Mishkan: A Sanctuary of Spiritual Maturity

    In the beginning of this week’s Torah Portion, Terumah, Moses has just ascended Mount Sinai after the saying of the aseret hadibrot, Ten Commandments, and G-d now commands Moses to tell the Jewish People to collect funds for the building of the Mishkan, (Tabernacle), a moving Temple the Jewish people traveled with in the desert. …

  • The Balance We Must Uphold as a People

    This Sunday we will observe the fast day of the 17th of Tammuz, which commemorates the siege of Jerusalem leading to the destruction of the Temple.  The Talmud says that the Temple was destroyed due to baseless hatred among Jews.  This is hard to avoid, for as one great thinker said, “We see anyone more…

  • The Nighttime Prayer: Transforming Darkness into Light

    The Talmud writes that we learn to pray three times a day from both the sacrifices in the Temple and from our Avot, Avrohom, Yitzchak and Yaakov.  Avrohom stood before god just after the destruction of Sodom, and the Talmud says “standing” means prayer.  Reguarding Yitzchak the Torah tells us, “And Yitzchak went out to…

  • Understanding Bilam’s Spiritual Failure

    In this week’s parsha, Balak, Balak the king of Moav realizes he will not be able to defeat the Jewish people in war and that he must reckon with them on a spiritual level.  He hires Billam, a Midianite prophet, to curse the Jews.   Bilam tells God about the Jewish people, that they came…

  • The Tension of Sinai and Shmita

    This week’s double Torah portion of Bihar and Bichukoti begins, “And G-d spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai saying, speak to the Children of Israel and say to them, when you enter the land which I am giving you the land must rest a Sabbath to G-d…six years you shall plant….and the seventh year shall…

  • Concrete Worship or Spiritual Growth

    In the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Terumah, Moses has just ascended Mount Sinai after the saying of the aseret hadibrot, Ten Commandments, and God now commands Moses to tell the Jewish people to collect funds for the building of the Mishkan, (Tabernacle), a moving temple the Jewish people traveled with in the desert.…

  • The Call of Elul: Listening as the First Step to Return

    We are currently in the month of Elul, the Hebrew month preceding the days of awe.   This is the month spent cultivating tishuvah.  Tishuvah is often translated as repentance but literally means return.   The Torah portion this week speaks of blessings and curses.  The Jewish people are promised blessing if they listen to…

  • Moshe’s Prayer for Compassionate Guidance

    In this week’s parsha, Pinchas, Moshe begins to prepare for the succession of his leadership:  “Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, “Let the Lord, God of the breath of all flesh, appoint someone over the community.”” Moshe’s wording is strange in many ways.  This is the only place in the Torah where the verse, “And…

  • Protecting Our Community in Times of Uncertainty

    This coming week the Mayor of Washington, D.C. will lift the mandatory mask mandate.  According to the Mayor, the city is getting out of the business of mandates and leaving it up to individuals, organizations and businesses to make decisions regarding the best way to protect themselves and their constituents, utilizing “layered mitigation strategies.”  …

  • Beyond Rebuke: Transforming Hatred into Compassion

    We are now in the midst of the period of the Three Weeks, a sad time during which we mourn the destruction of both Temples.  The Talmud writes that the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people exiled at this time due to sinat chinam, baseless hatred. In fact though, all hatred is forbidden, as…

  • Embracing Light and Darkness in Jewish Tradition

    One of Judaism’s greatest strengths is its ability to utilize every emotion.  For example, many people try to avoid sadness, but Judaism has a day, Tisha B’av, entirely focused on a sadness so deep that we sit on the ground and cry, feeling as if we have lost a loved one.  Purim, in contrast, utilizes…

  • The Transformative Journey of Yom Kippur

    It is almost Rosh Hashanah and we all approach the High Holidays with different feelings and perspectives.  Some are worried about the coming year and hope that prayer will secure a healthy and prosperous year for them.  Others want to fulfill their chivuvim -obligations and mitzvot – by praying, hearing the shofar and fasting.  Still…

  • Learning from Moses and Yehoshua

    This past week we read in the Torah of Pinchus, someone who stands up to fulfill what is written in Pirkey Avot (The Ethics of Our Fathers), “In a place where there is no one, stand up and be someone”.  He is the classic zealot for God.  Several paragraphs latter when God tells Moses that…

  • Teshuvah Through Love: Transforming Faults into Merits

    The Talmud states that teshuvah done from fear renders one’s sins, even if they were done intentionally, as if they were committed unintentionally, but teshuvah from love actually transforms intentional sins into merits. How is this possible? I think the answer lies in the nature of love itself.  Love results in some degree of unity…

  • Embracing the Roles of Leadership in Community

    This week’s Torah portion begins with God speaking to Moshe but here God addresses Moshe in an uncommon way, with the words “V’Ata,”  “And You.”  One verse later, we have this opening again, and then a few verses later we have this phrase repeated a third time, after which it disappears as quickly as it…

  • Connecting the Temple’s Sacred Spaces

    In this week’s Torah portion, Tetzaveh, Moses is told to command the Jewish people to take pure olive oil to light the menorah in the Temple.  The menorah was lit each day as one of the first services in the temple in Jerusalem.  The description of the actual fashioning of the gold menorah was already…