• Reflections on Kesher Israel

    A recent visitor in shul, looking slightly bemused, asked me, “Is Kesher an international organization?” I answered, “Yes and no.” We are a shul, but additionally we have “members” all over the world, many of whom have lived here and some who just attend a few times a year. All of these thousands of Kesherites…

  • Israel: the First and Last Man

    Last week, something shifted in the world. We all knew that Iran preached wiping Israel and the United States off the map, but most of us assumed these were threats that could never actually materialize. After all, the destruction of whole countries and the whole world is the stuff of movies.  Surely a sane adult…

  • Light in the Darkness

    This week’s Torah portion, Beha’alotcha, opens with the command that the Kohen light the menorah in the tabernacle. This command seems out of place here. It follows the account of the gifts brought by the heads of each tribe for the dedication of the altar and precedes the discussion of the sanctification of the Levites.…

  • Celebrating the Material

    This coming week we will celebrate the holiday of Shavuot. The Talmud (Pesachim 68b) states: Rabbi Eliezer says: “On a Festival a person must either eat and drink or sit and learn the entire day.” Rabbi Yehoshua says: “Divide the day, half of it for eating and drinking and half of it for the study…

  • Judaism as a national experience

    I dedicate these words of Torah to the memory of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim who were killed for being Jews here in our own city of Washington.  We mourn for them and pray for their families and all our people.  -Rabbi Shafner We are in the midst of counting the Omer, a 49-day…

  • Lag B’Omer, Politics and Jewish Unity

    This week we celebrate Lag B’Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer. Our tradition is that on the 33rd day, the plague that resulted in the death of Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students ceased. The Talmud tells us that the students of Rabbi Akiva all died between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot, “because they did not treat…

  • Gathering and Welcoming

    We have been reading in the last few Torah portions about the limits of who can enter the Tabernacle. For instance, those who are impure due to childbirth or the disease of tzara’at, or a Kohen who is drunk, are not allowed to enter. The Tabernacle was not entirely welcoming and accessible.   Synagogues have some…

  • Yom HaZikaron

    This period of Sefirat HaOmer is a time of counting. We count 50 days from Passover to Shavuot. Counting is a process of looking forward, of moving toward. Today is Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, which follows Israel’s Memorial Day commemorating those who have died defending the country and Am Yisrael.    On this Yom HaZikaron and Yom…

  • Yom Hashoah and the Two Sons of Aaron: The Fire, The Silence, and the Cry

    Tonight at Kesher Israel, we will commemorate the Holocaust, whose cruelty was far beyond comprehension. We Americans of the 21st century live relatively secure and prosperous lives. It is hard to fathom that less than 100 years ago, there was nothing cheaper than Jewish blood—that more than one out of every three Jews was murdered,…

  • Building More Than Walls: The Purpose of a Shul and the Heart of Community

    What is the role of a Jewish community and a shul?   Human beings develop via three pathways, the intellectual, the emotional and the social. Sufficient nurturing, education and guidance within our families of origin help us to do this. As Jews, we also must develop ourselves as spiritual and religious personalities. This is the primary…

  • Parshat Parah-Paradox and Purity: The Red Heifer, Purim, and the Hidden Unity of God

    This week we read the special maftir of Parah, which describes the strange commandment of the red heifer. If someone becomes impure through contact with a dead body, the purification process is via the ashes of a red heifer, which must be mixed with water and sprinkled upon them. The Kohen, the priest, who sprinkles…

  • Celebrating Amidst Anxiety

    This week is the Fast of Esther and the holiday of Purim. There is a joke that our holidays consist of, “They tried to kill us, they did not succeed, let’s eat.” It’s interesting that of all the holidays which commemorate our salvation, only on Purim do we fast on the day we were supposed…

  • Acting, not Reacting

    In this week’s Torah portion, Terumah, we read the instructions God gives to Moshe for the building of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. What is the function of the Mishkan? According to Nachmanides, it is a moveable Sinai. God was revealed to us at Mount Sinai and we can preserve that intimacy in the Mishkan, a…

  • Theft of Souls

    These days, the news from Israel leaves us constantly reeling: the lost joy of seeing loved ones who have been in the depths of terror and Hamas dungeons for 500 days; the devastating reality of the innocents we feel connected to, such as the Bibas family, lives torn asunder and murdered.    On Tuesday night, Feb.…

  • Learning from Community

    In this week’s Torah portion, Yitro, we hear about Moses’ father-in-law, who comes to see the Jewish people in the desert: “And Yitro the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard all that God had done for Moses and for His people Israel; that God brought them out of Egypt.” Rashi comments: “What did Yitro hear…

  • Having Faith and Being Present

    This past week, I was in Israel at the Shalom Hartman Institute. In addition to extensive textual learning, which was our main focus, we heard from several Israeli speakers regarding life in Israel at this moment in time. One who has been involved in many years of high-level negotiations contended that though Israel is in…

  • Seeing the Divine in Every Person

    In this week’s Torah portion, Vaera, Moshe complains to God that he is a bad speaker, literally “uncircumcised of lips,” and thus cannot go to Pharaoh. God’s solution is to send Aaron with him to be the speaker. But just before this, we are told Moshe tried to talk to the Jewish people, and “the…

  • From Faith to Action

    In our Torah portion, Shemot, Moses puts himself in danger by killing an Egyptian taskmaster in order to save one of the Jewish slaves he knows are his brethren. Moses clearly cares for those who are vulnerable, for the slaves, and wants to take action to save them even at personal risk. But if this…

  • Life, Death, and the Sefer Torah

    This week’s Torah portion, Vayechi, begins with the death of Jacob. Similar to the death of Sarah, which began with a sentence about life (“And it was the life of Sarah…”), Jacob’s death is also introduced with life (“And Jacob lived…”). Life and death are intertwined. We live but we also know that death stands…

  • The 70 faces of the Torah

    This week’s parsha is quite perplexing. The Torah tells us that Joseph spoke lashon hara, slander, about his brothers and that the brothers decided to kill him for it. “And each man said to his brother, ‘Behold, the dreamer comes. So now let us go and kill him and throw him into one of the…