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Passover 2015
Regarding the Seder night Maimonides writes, “In every generation a person is obligated to see themselves as if they, right now, have gone out from the slavery of Egypt. So does the Torah write, “remember that you were a slave,” meaning it is as if you yourself were a slave and have gone out to…
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The Torah Value of Decentralized Power
Recently a prominent Orthodox rabbi was arrested for voyeurism, for putting cameras in a mikvah. Much has been written already about what must be learned from this horrific abuse of power. Perhaps rabbis require more oversight and annual reviews, perhaps there should be more women’s leadership around issues of mikvah, tighter security at mikvaot, etc.…
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Sukkot 2014
Every child learns the question in Jewish day school. If the sukkah reminds us of God’s protection of the Jewish people in the desert why don’t we build it in the month of Nisan when the Jewish people left Egypt. There are many answers but one that Rav Yitzchok Hutner gives in his book Pachad…
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Elul 2014
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…
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My Brethren in Gaza
I feel terrible for the people of Gaza. They live under the rule of a violent oppressor. But their oppressor is not Israel, it is Hamas, a terrorist entity whose very name means anger and whose actions seem to so revolve around war and hatred, that they cannot spend adequate money, time, or effort on the welfare…
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Passover 2014 – Hidden meanings in the Passover Seder
In a few days the Jewish people will celebrate the holiday of Passover. The central observance of Passover is the seder meal with matza (unleavened bread), maror (bitter herbs), a festive meal, four cups of wine, readings related to the Biblical exodus from Egypt 3500 years ago, and above all, dialogue including questions, answers and…
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Shavuot 2014 – Reflections on our Community Shavuot Tikun and Jewish Unity
This past Tuesday night, the first night of Shavuot, over 100 people from five different shuls and institutions, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox, came together to spend the night (some even made it all night!) learning Torah together; to stand again as we did at Sinai, no matter our differences, as “one person with one heart”.…
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Some St. Louis History: Bais Abraham Congregation Celebrates 120 years
The Orthodox Jewish community of St. Louis dates back to the early 19th century. Though it began small, in the 1880’s and 1890’s waves of Orthodox Jews from Russia and Poland emigrated to the United States and to St. Louis. By the 1940’s there were close to 25 Orthodox synagogues in St. Louis. These congregations for…
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Ark as Metaphor
In synagogues, the world over Jewish people are reading the Biblical book of Exodus, with its quintessential moment of Jewish history. The Children of Israel, several weeks after their exodus from Egypt, reach Mount Sinai and there receive the two tablets of stone on which is written the ten commandments, followed by the rest of…
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Different Roles
I came across THIS ARTICLE by Rabbi Avi Shafran, my old 10th grade Rebbe. There is a lot he writes in the public arena that I do not agree with, but this one I really did. I articulated a similar notion in my post in this blog about Maharats HERE. Indeed when our Maharat here at Bais Abraham…
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Raising Consciousness about the Agunah Crisis
This past Sunday our congregation, Bais Abraham in St. Louis, Missouri, hosted a post-nup signing event with the aim of prompting the whole shul and much of the community to sign the RCA post-nup and to raise consciousness for the plight of Agunot, women chained in a marriage by a recalcitrant husband who refuses to…
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Of Fish Tacos and Otherness
I grew up in the 1970’s in one of the only Orthodox Jewish families in a small Connecticut town. I did not know then that kosher keeping Jews could eat in a restaurant. I never had eaten in one and the thought of doing so did not even cross my mind. Once a year we…
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The Other 75%
I would like draw our attention to the other 75%. The approximately 75% of Jews who, according to the Pew report, do not attend a shul and do not feel that Jewish community or Jewish observance is a necessary part of being a Jew. We spend a lot of time thinking about, teaching, and interacting…
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Serving G-d in every Moment
October 30, 2013 The Torah describes Sara our foremother’s death by enumerating the years of her life. Then the verse repeats, “…these were the years of Sara’s life.” Rash”i is bothered by this repetition, and comments, “All of them were equally for good.” The Rebbe of Tosh, Rabbi Meshulam Feish Segal, may he live and…
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The Lesson of Tishuvah
This month of Elul leads up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It is a time of reflection and tishuvah, return, but with what should we emerge from this process? Elul, Rosh Hashanah, the 10 Days of Tishuvah and Yom Kippur culminates in a service performed once a year on Yom Kippur itself, on the…
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The Stranger Within Your Gates: Answering Questions about Bais Abraham’s Recent Eshel Shabbat
On a recent Shabbat, Bais Abraham hosted speakers from Eshel (www.eshelonline.org), a national organization building communities of support, learning, and inclusion for Orthodox lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Jews. The three speakers were LGBT Orthodox individuals, two of whom came to observance later in life and one of whom grew up Chassidic. They each shared…
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Maharat: A new Model of Leadership
Orthodox Jews believe that men and women are fundamentally different. They have different characteristics, different strengths, different obligations and different ways of seeing the world and approaching life. Thus, it follows that especially for us, (as opposed perhaps to more liberal Jewish movements in which the boundaries between the genders might be more blurred), it…
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Purim 2013
Finding God where He is not…in our world In less than a week, on March 20th, Jews will celebrate the holiday of Purim. Though not as well known by many as other holidays, Purim is actually considered perhaps the most important Jewish holiday. The Midrash, a first-century Jewish commentary on the Bible, writes that in…
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Physical beauty Transformed: From Anthony Weiner to Sara of the Bible
I recently came across a fascinating blog. It is authored by an anonymous single mother in San Francisco who suffered horrendous sexual abuse as a child at the hands of her own father and contains some of the deepest spiritual insights I have read. In a post entitled “Does your grandmother look good naked?” she…