Like Chanukah, Purim, which we will be celebrating on Sunday, celebrates triumph and salvation, yet Purim and Chanukah feel very different. On Chanukah we focus on the victory—really, the far aftermath of the victory —the lighting of candles and celebration of the rededication of the Temple. We do not read about the Greek threat or…
This Shabbat is Shabbat Shuvah, the Shabbat of Return which falls between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur each year. Why is Shabbat Shuvah so significant? After all, we don’t refer to the Monday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as the Monday of teshuvah. Shabbat plays a special role in the process of teshuvah, return…
This week is Rosh Hashanah, the New Year. Really the first day of the month of Tishrei, the holiday of Rosh Hashanah celebrates neither the first day of creation nor the last. The midrash says that Rosh Hashanah actually was the day that Adam and Chava were created. Though we say in the davening, “hayom…
The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, is a week away. Generally, achieving atonement takes work through engagement in the process of teshuvah, return. One must admit their sin, ask forgiveness of those they sinned against, and change their ways. But there is one mechanism that facilitated atonement even without teshuvah — the Sair Hamishtaleach —the scapegoat, which was…
This coming week is Rosh Hashanah, the “birthday of the world,” as it is called in the Musaf liturgy. But Rosh Hashanah, the first day of Tishrei, is not the first day of creation but the sixth day of creation, on which, according to the story in Bereshit, the human being was created. On…
Time is central to many mitzvot and elements of Jewish life. We pray at specific times of day, the holidays are called moadim which means “times”, and seasons of year even have specific textures relating to their holidays, such as freedom, introspection, joy, etc. When we think about what time is though, we are at…
In addition to Passover we also celebrate the Shabbat preceding it. In fact this Shabbat has a special name, Shabbat Hagodol, The Great Shabbat. The Torah writes, And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron…Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take everyone a lamb,…
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…
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…
The Talmud states: “We anoint kings next to a spring of water so that their kingship should continue to give forth like a spring…Rabbi Ammi said, “If one is about to engage in business and wishes to know whether he will succeed or not, let him get a rooster and feed it; if it grows…
Pesach, which falls this Friday night, commemorates the most important moment in Jewish history. We have no commandment to remember Saini, or the day we entered Israel, but we have many which commemorate the Exodus from Egypt because this moment of leaving Egypt and becoming a nation contextualizes who we are as Jews more than…
This week we celebrate the holiday of Purim. The Torah has messages for every time and generation. There are many lessons we can learn from Purim for our lives today. On a theological level we can learn about the invisible hand of Providence guiding the events of history, which is perhaps why the megillah, which…
This Shabbat, the Shabbat before Pesach, is called Shabat HaGodol, the “Big Shabbat”. Four days before the Seder, the 10th of Nisan, the Torah commands that one must choose a lamb for the Passover offering and tie it up in preparation for the Seder. The commentaries explain that the year the Jewish people left Egypt…
The Midrash says that this Shabbat, the Seventh day of Pesach, commemorates the day on which the Jewish people crossed the sea. Thus, the Torah reading is the splitting of the sea and Az Yashir, the Song at the Sea. The Talmud has three opinions as to the mechanics of the way in which…
Maimonides writes the following about the seder in the Mishnah Torah, Laws of Chametz and Matzah, Chapter 7: “We should make changes on this night so that the children will see and will ask: “Why is this night different from all other nights?” until we reply to them: “This and this occurred; this and this…
The Talmud writes that in the month of Nisan the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt and in the month of Nisan they will be redeemed in the future (Rosh Hashanah 11a). In Judaism, time is not just a measure of movement, but has unique textures. Nisan is a time of freedom and redemption,…
At the end of this past weeks Torah portion is a very strange juxtaposition of ideas. After the firstborn in Egypt are killed the Jewish people are told “therefore you use sanctify the firstborn of the Jewish people,” animals should be given to the temple and human beings are redeemed five coins. But what does…
This Shabbat, the Shabbat preceding Passover is known as, Shabat HaGadol, “The Great Shabbat”. What is so great about it? The Torah writes, And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron…Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take everyone a lamb, according to the house…
Abraham welcoming the three men Recently I was in a community populated by older people. After davening I was sitting in the passenger’s seat of a car and moved to the back to accommodate an older man who walked with a cane. His friend, an older holocaust survivor, who has lived for all…
Yom Kippur will arrive this week and thousands of Jews will attend synagogues. Why is it that so many attend synagogue on Yom Kippur, but not the rest of the year? What is it about Yom Kippur that draws us? No doubt because it is a holy day, we want to be present. But many…