• Embracing Both Tradition and Intellectual Inquiry

    In this week’s parsha God tells Yitzchak He will bless him, “because Avrohom listened to My voice, and guarded my commandments and my Torah.”   According to Rash”i this verse tells us that Avrohom actually kept the entire Torah even though it was not yet commanded.   The Kabbalah says that this was possible since…

  • Human Dignity and the Door to Repentance

    The Talmud tells the following story in tractate Berachot 10a: “There were hooligans in Rabbi Meir’s neighborhood who caused him a great deal of anguish. Rabbi Meir prayed for God to have mercy on them, that they should die. Rabbi Meir’s wife, Berurya, said to him: What is your thinking? On what basis do you…

  • The Torah’s Call to Combat Bias and Lashon Hara

    This week we read the double parsha of Acharey Mot and Kedoshim.  Acharey Mot deals mostly with the laws of Yom Kippur and forbidden sexual relations and Kidoshim is filled with a wide variety of laws, both ritual and interpersonal.  In Kedoshim the Torah states: “You shall not be unfair in judgment, do not favor…

  • The Golden Calf and the Freedom Found in Limitation

    In this week’s Torah portion, just 40 days after receiving the Divine Revelation at Mount Sinai, the Jewish people become anxious that Moses their leader will not return from on top of the mountain and they make for themselves a golden calf.   In the midst of their sensual, noisy, Dionysian worship of the calf…

  • Chasing Peace and Divine Lessons from Moses

    In this week’s Torah portion the Jewish people reach the east side of the Jordan River and must pass through the land of Sichon, king of the Amorites, in order to enter Israel. Moses sends Sichon a message asking that the Amorites let the Jewish people peacefully pass through their lands and the Jews promise…

  • Unlocking Holiness: The Power of Patience and Faith in Others

    In this week’s torah portion, Toldot, Rebecca the wife of Isaac is pregnant with twins who are struggling and moving within her womb a great deal.  She was extremely disturbed by this and went “to seek out G-d” for an explanation.  She was told there are “two nations in your womb…and the elder shall serve…

  • Beyond Doctrine: Embracing All Jews as Family

    We now feel separated and divided, but in many ways we are more unified. Families who never made the effort to get together are now uniting over Zoom.   Here at Kesher Israel each week we have been asking our members to teach as part of the new Voices of Kesher program -an opportunity to…

  • Seeing Beyond the Surface

    The Torah is multifaceted.  There are narratives and sub narratives, seeming non-sequiturs, repetitions, and juxtapositions, all of which from a traditional point of view, we believe are significant and rich grist for the interpretive mill.  In the story of Abraham’s family, I detect an interesting, seemingly subversive, sub-narrative. In Parshat Lech Licha, Yitzchak is clearly…

  • Responsibility in the Face of Tragedy

    This Shabbat is the double parsha of Bihar-Bechukotai.   In Bechukotai we read of the blessings and curses which outline the good things that will happen to the Jews as a nation if they obey the word of God and the terrible things which will befall them if they do not.   Though these end…

  • Sacrifice, Mystery, and Meaning

    Now to this week’s Torah portion, Trumah, in which we begin to read the description of the Tabernacle and its vessels.   The laws of the Tabernacle take up an enormous amount of space in the Torah.  Is the Tabernacle really so central to Jewish life that it should occupy more space than any other…

  • Embracing Tradition and Reason in a Modern World

    In this week’s parsha God tells Yitzchak He will bless him, “because Avrohom listened to My voice, and guarded my commandments and my Torah.”   According to Rash”i this verse tells us that Avrohom actually kept the entire Torah even though it was not yet commanded.   The Kabbalah says that this was possible since…

  • 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…