• 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…

  • Am I in the place of God?

    In this week’s Torah portion, Vayetzei, Jacob marries two sisters, Leah and Rachel. Leah has children but Rachel, his favorite, is barren: “When Rachel saw that she had borne Jacob no children, she became envious of her sister; and Rachel said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I shall die.’ Jacob became angry at Rachel…

  • The Struggle for Blessing

    Jews do not often talk about God. We are comfortable with mitzvot, commandments, but we speak less than other religions directly about God. Perhaps this is because God is abstract—we are physical beings, and God is infinite—so we approach the Divine by obeying God’s word, by studying and keeping the Torah, which is a way…

  • The Reign of Esther

    This week’s Torah portion is called Chayei Sarah, The Life of Sarah, but really is about her death and burial: “And it was the life of Sarah, one hundred years and twenty years and seven years, these were the years of Sarah. And Sarah died…” The Midrash in Bereshit Rabbah relates the following story: “Rabbi…

  • Hospitality and Religious Tolerance

    This week I attended two events which highlighted the importance of religious freedom in America. The first was a gathering of the Rumi Forum, an organization founded by American Muslims to bring together people of different religions for dialogue and study. Their study method, called scriptural reasoning, involves looking at an idea as it is…

  • Tolerance and Acceptance in a Divided World

    We have just completed an election in which the American people are deeply divided. Half the country is happy, hopeful and victorious and half is sad, scared and defeated. Some even think that our democracy itself is a failed experiment. What does the Torah say about this? Can one take pride in the democratic process…

  • Gifts

    This past month of Tishrei holidays was an inspiring one at Kesher Israel. Yom Kippur was one to remember, with a packed shul, lots of singing throughout the services and joyous dancing during Neilah. A larger number of our members built sukkot—in yards, on porches and in courtyards of apartment buildings.    Shemini Atzeret was both…

  • From Selfie King to Savior: Yosef’s Glow-Up in the Pit

    In this week’s Torah portion, Vayeshev, Yosef is 17 years old and quite self-involved. He is a dreamer and, as Rashi tells us, constantly coming his hair, and overly concerned with his outward appearance. He seems haughty, declaring his dreams to his family, which are perceived by his father and brothers as being about Yosef’s …

  • Grappling with Rising Antisemitism in a Shifting Zeitgeist

    Over the past five years and especially since October 7th, antisemitic acts have been on a sudden and jarring rise, and Kesher Israel has been no exception.  The number of incidents at Shul, whether people driving by and yelling “Heil Hitler,” or nearby graffiti about the situation in Israel, has risen in recent months.  This…

  • The value of despair

    In this week’s Torah portion, Vayeshev, Yosef is 17 years old and quite self-involved. He is a dreamer and, as Rashi tells us, constantly combing his hair, and overly concerned with his outward appearance. He seems haughty, declaring his dreams to his family, which are perceived by his father and brothers as being about Yosef’s own…

  • How Struggling with Esaw Shapes Our Faith

    Where does faith in God and in Torah come from? There are many places—our tradition itself is certainly one source— the beauty of living a Jewish life itself is a fountain for, and practice of, faith. Additionally, there are “proofs” that medieval Jewish thinkers express such as the proof from design, that just as the…

  • Gratitude on Thanksgiving: How Hakarat Hatov Shapes Our Lives

    This week is Thanksgiving and while it is not a Jewish holiday, it is the expression of an important Jewish idea.   Every day, giving thanks is important, but having a day devoted to thanks is a way of ensuring that we keep it on our minds on all the other days as well. Of…

  • Jewish Pain and Unity in War

    This week, I am traveling to Israel with a group of 15 rabbis through the Rabbinical Council of America and Yeshiva University. I go as a representative of our community and, along with the other rabbis, as messengers of the Jewish people in the diaspora. We are going in order to express, through our presence,…

  • From Pain to Prayer: Lessons on Faith in Times of Darkness

    In the end of this week’s Torah portion, Vayera, we read about the famous Akeidah, the binding of Isaac.  For millennia, people have written about the perplexity of this story—how could God command Abraham to kill his child? How could Abraham listen to God? What is the Torah trying to teach us? Sacrificing one’s child…

  • Finding God in the Fire

    Our ancestor, Abraham, is a mysterious figure. We meet him when he is 75 years old and we do not know much about him when God makes him the first Hebrew by commanding Abraham to leave his home and go “To the land which I will show you.” This, of course, turns out to be…

  • Noach and Jewish Unity

    The mourning, fear and anxiety which we feel as individuals and a nation is profound—there is so much sadness and loss among our people. At the same time, the sense of profound unity in Israel, which has come in the blink of an eye, is pervasive and unprecedented in recent times. Like one person with…

  • George Washington and the Spirit of Chanukah in Washington

    Chanukah in Washington is a time of parties and gatherings, since it’s a city in which relationships, connections, and shared ideas are so central to the culture. Though I am not political by vocation or nature, D.C. is, as they say, a company town. Thus, it is part of my role as Rabbi to attend many…

  • Do “clothes make the man”?

    Our parsha, Vayeshev, is filled with deception facilitated by clothing.  Joseph’s clothes of many colors are used by his brothers to deceive their father into thinking Joseph is dead, Tamar hides her face under a veil so Judah does not recognize her and takes her for a prostitute, and the wife of Potefar uses a…

  • Seeing God in “The Place”

    In this week’s Torah portion, Vayetzey, Jacob runs away from his brother Esav who wants to kill him for taking the blessing.   He goes toward Charan, the home of his uncle Lavan.  Then, “Vayifga b’makom,”- Jacob “bumped into the place.”  The Rabbis comment that this was indeed “the place” -Mount Moriyah- the place Abraham…