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Using the Pandemic to Reconnect with What Truly Matters
We are surrounded by mortality -here in the country we considered safely above epidemics, and in the world at large. This kind of widespread death shocks us from the comfort of our everyday denial of death. The human being’s constant background denial of their own mortality allows them to go on day to day, to…
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The Transformative Role of Counting in the Torah
In the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Bamidbar, the Torah relates that on the first day of the second month, God tells Moses to count the Jewish people. This is the third time in the Torah that the Jewish people are counted, as Rashi (Rabbi Shlomoh Isaac, 11century French Torah commentator) says, “They are…
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The Danger of Self-Control Without Purpose
In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes the Sotah, the unfaithful wife and the priestly ceremony that she could voluntarily undergo to be exonerated if she were innocent. This is followed by the Nazir, the nazarite who electively enters an ascetic state forbidding wine upon himself, as well as refraining from cutting his hair and…
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Shavuot and the Depth of Torah Study
A few days ago, on Shavuot night at Kesher Israel, over 100 people stayed up all night learning Torah and eating great dairy desserts. The night began with an innovative debate between two of our longtime members, both immensely accomplished individual thinkers. The debate was over Korach, and consisted of the prosecution and…
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Overcoming the Yetzer Hara: A Pathway to Divine Connection
In this week’s parsha, Be’halot’cha, we find two verses which are considered by many commentaries to be a separate book of the Torah, leaving us with seven books instead of the usual five, (a good thing to know for parsha quizzes!). These verses are set aside by an upside down form of the letter “nun”…
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From Sinai to the Desert: The Struggle with Desire and Growth
In this week’s parsha, the Jewish people have started the walk from Mount Sinai to the land of Israel and the people begin to complain. “We remember the fish, which we ate for free in Egypt; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, onions, and garlic; But now our soul is dried up; there…
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Lessons from the Jewish People’s Recoil at the Promised Land
In this week’s Torah portion, Shelach, the Jewish people have completed the short trek from Mount Sinai to the Land of Israel. God tells them to send the heads of each tribe as spies to spy out the Land of Israel. After 40 days the spies return. Ten spies bring a bad report of the…
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Empathy Beyond the Surface
This week we read the Parsha of Shelach. The Jewish people send spies into the land, and they return with a bad report. The people accept the report and as a result must spend 40 years traveling through the desert. Why do the spies, who are princes of their tribes, give a bad report?…
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Balancing Equality and Structure in Our Time
In this week’s Parsha, Moshe’s cousin Korach challenges Moshe’s leadership, and says: “The whole people are holy, why do you raise yourself above the people of God?” The Midrash comments: “Korah said to Moses, “In the case of a tallit which is all blue, what is the rule about it being exempt from having the…
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Korach, Exile, and Our Partial Return
In this week’s parsha, Korach, Korach comes forward with an “edah”, a congregation. It is composed of several disgruntled sub-groups with various complaints. One group is upset that they are not kohanim and another is upset that Moshe has not brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey. Moshe wants to speak to…
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Rethinking Holiness: The Legacy of Korach’s 250
In this week’s Torah portion, Korach, Moshe’s cousin Korach (who is not a Kohen) approaches Moshe and Aaron with the claim, “the whole people is holy, why do you raise yourself up above the people of God?” Moshe replies, “In the morning God will make known who is to Him and who are the holy…
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We Are All Holy: Korach’s Claim Revisited
In this week’s Torah portion, Korach, Moshe’s cousin Korach (who is not a Kohen) approaches Moshe and Aaron with the claim, “the whole people is holy, why do you raise yourself up above the people of God?” Moshe replies, “In the morning God will make known who is to Him and who are the holy…
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The Rock, the Mourning, and the Power of Unity
In this week’s parsha, Chukat, the Jewish people complain for water and Moshe hits the rock, resulting in the punishment that he will not be able to enter the Land of Israel. The Jewish people have complained many times before, they have thirsted for water before and Moshe has brought water from a rock…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Moshe’s Prayer for Compassionate Guidance
In this week’s parsha, Pinchas, Moshe begins to prepare for the succession of his leadership: “Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, “Let the Lord, God of the breath of all flesh, appoint someone over the community.”” Moshe’s wording is strange in many ways. This is the only place in the Torah where the verse, “And…
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Beyond Rebuke: Transforming Hatred into Compassion
We are now in the midst of the period of the Three Weeks, a sad time during which we mourn the destruction of both Temples. The Talmud writes that the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people exiled at this time due to sinat chinam, baseless hatred. In fact though, all hatred is forbidden, as…
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Learning from Moses and Yehoshua
This past week we read in the Torah of Pinchus, someone who stands up to fulfill what is written in Pirkey Avot (The Ethics of Our Fathers), “In a place where there is no one, stand up and be someone”. He is the classic zealot for God. Several paragraphs latter when God tells Moses that…