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…

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…

In a few days, on the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, many of us will fulfill the once a year commandment of hearing the sound of the Shofar.  The mitzvah of the Shofar, as reflected in the blessing we make upon it, is not to blow the shofar, but to hear its sound. There are primarily…

The Rambam writes in the Laws of Tishuvah (return) about this season before the holidays that, “All people should see themselves as half guilty and half meritorious, if they do one sin now they tip themselves and the entire world with them to the side of guilt and cause destruction, if they do one mitzvah…

We call the process of repentance tishuvah or “return”.   This is very telling.  The process we engage in during this Jewish month of Elul and through Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot is not a process of becoming someone we are not, but rather a more organic process of getting in touch with who we really are…

The Talmud tells two stories of Rabbis visiting prostitutes and subsequently doing Tehsuvah (return, repentance).  A comparison of the two stories yields deep insights about our own work of Tishuvah at this time of the year.   A good and inspiring Month of Ellul to all. Story #1 (Babylonian Talmud, Minachot 44a) Once a man,…

On Prayer and Meditation My first post on Morethodoxy, entitled “Openness and Passion,” outlined what I perceive to be an important process in living the Torah, being able to adopt the strengths one finds in each community and in the so many different approaches to mitzvoth and Torah, even if they are not our own…

Often we limit the Torah.   We project onto it our own ideas and feel it can not defend itself or be of value as it is.  We fashion seatbelts for Torah that ultimately detract from it.  We limit Torah by projecting onto it what we think we already understand, what we think it should…

Over Rosh Hashanah I thought a lot about the akedah, the binding of Isaac, since the story is so central to Rosh Hashanah.  I contemplated some of the central questions that are asked out it. What gave Abraham the right to offer his child with out asking Sara since Isaac is her child also, as…

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…

Two Goats that Teach the Central Lesson of Yom Kippur In ancient times Yom Kippur was quite a different experience than it is for us today.  The entire Jewish people would gather at the Temple in Jerusalem to watch and listen as the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, performed the Temple service, and on this…

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…

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…

In this past Shabbat’s parsha Yaakov blesses his children with unusual blessings.  We imagine blessings to be good wishes or promises for the future, here though Yaakov seems to bless his children by describing them, their strengths and weaknesses, in some instances, such as Shimon and Levi, only mentioning their weaknesses.  What kind of blessing…