• The True Challenge of the Akedah

    In this week’s Torah portion, Vayera Avrohom faces the most difficult of his ten tests, to sacrifice his child.  The Akedah is perhaps the most perplexing chapter in the Torah.  How could Avrohom agree to do what was forbidden?  When Cain killed Abel it can be argued that Cain did not know it was wrong.…

  • How Yaakov’s Flexibility Can Inspire Our Community

    In this week’s parsha, Toldot, the Torah tells us Rivka gave birth to two twin brothers, Yaakov and Esav.  Esav was a hairy person, a hunter and a man of the field and forest.  Jacob was “ish tam,” “a simple man who dwelled in the tent.”  Rash”i says “ish tam” means, “Someone who says what…

  • Navigating Tradition and Change

    The Voice of Women in Holy Song and Prayer In the beginning of this past week’s Torah portion,Toldot, the Torah writes, “These are the generations of Isaac…” Surprisingly, we are told in the next verse that there are no generations, that Rivka, like each of our ancestors, was  barren.  The Torah comes to describe the…

  • Embracing Both Tradition and Intellectual Inquiry

    In this week’s parsha God tells Yitzchak He will bless him, “because Avrohom listened to My voice, and guarded my commandments and my Torah.”   According to Rash”i this verse tells us that Avrohom actually kept the entire Torah even though it was not yet commanded.   The Kabbalah says that this was possible since…

  • Unlocking Holiness: The Power of Patience and Faith in Others

    In this week’s torah portion, Toldot, Rebecca the wife of Isaac is pregnant with twins who are struggling and moving within her womb a great deal.  She was extremely disturbed by this and went “to seek out G-d” for an explanation.  She was told there are “two nations in your womb…and the elder shall serve…

  • Seeing Beyond the Surface

    The Torah is multifaceted.  There are narratives and sub narratives, seeming non-sequiturs, repetitions, and juxtapositions, all of which from a traditional point of view, we believe are significant and rich grist for the interpretive mill.  In the story of Abraham’s family, I detect an interesting, seemingly subversive, sub-narrative. In Parshat Lech Licha, Yitzchak is clearly…

  • Embracing Tradition and Reason in a Modern World

    In this week’s parsha God tells Yitzchak He will bless him, “because Avrohom listened to My voice, and guarded my commandments and my Torah.”   According to Rash”i this verse tells us that Avrohom actually kept the entire Torah even though it was not yet commanded.   The Kabbalah says that this was possible since…

  • The Nighttime Prayer: Transforming Darkness into Light

    The Talmud writes that we learn to pray three times a day from both the sacrifices in the Temple and from our Avot, Avrohom, Yitzchak and Yaakov.  Avrohom stood before god just after the destruction of Sodom, and the Talmud says “standing” means prayer.  Reguarding Yitzchak the Torah tells us, “And Yitzchak went out to…

  • Protecting Our Community in Times of Uncertainty

    This coming week the Mayor of Washington, D.C. will lift the mandatory mask mandate.  According to the Mayor, the city is getting out of the business of mandates and leaving it up to individuals, organizations and businesses to make decisions regarding the best way to protect themselves and their constituents, utilizing “layered mitigation strategies.”  …

  • Embracing Light and Darkness in Jewish Tradition

    One of Judaism’s greatest strengths is its ability to utilize every emotion.  For example, many people try to avoid sadness, but Judaism has a day, Tisha B’av, entirely focused on a sadness so deep that we sit on the ground and cry, feeling as if we have lost a loved one.  Purim, in contrast, utilizes…

  • Uncovering the Chanukah Connection in Yaakov’s Struggle

    In this week’s Torah portion, Vayishlach, Yaakov leaves Lavan’s house and learns that Esav his brother who wanted to kill him is coming with 400 men.  He sends his family ahead and prepares them for war and then Yaakov crosses back over the river Yabbok alone in the night.  There he has the famous struggle…

  • Joseph, His Brothers, and the Thanksgiving Message

    In this week’s parsha, Vayeshev, we read the story of Joseph and his brothers which contains the tragic seeds of the Jewish peoples’ exile in Egypt. As the Talmud writes (Shabbat 10b): “Rava bar Meḥasseya said that Rav Ḥama bar Gurya said that Rav said: A person should never distinguish one of his sons from…

  • Joseph’s Early Mistake: The Path to Becoming a Tzadik

    This week’s Torah portion, Va’yeshev, begins by describing the relationship between Joseph and his brothers when Joseph was 17 years old. The Torah tells us that when Joseph was tending sheep with his brothers “…Joseph brought slander about them to his father. Israel loved Joseph more of all the brothers….and they (his brothers) were unable…

  • A Call to Bring Hope to the Dark Places in Our World

    The Talmud, Avoda Zava 8a, states: Our Sages taught: When Adam the first man saw that the day was progressively diminishing, as the days become shorter from the autumnal equinox until the winter solstice, he did not yet know that this is a normal phenomenon, and therefore he said: Woe is me; perhaps because I…

  • Cultivating a Personal Jewish Life Amidst External Pressures

    Yosef is called Yosef HaTzadik, Joseph the Righteous.  He is the ancestor who lives in a foreign, idolatrous land, becomes well integrated into its structure functioning there as a great leader, and yet retains his Israelite religious values.  Yosef’s ability, in the face of Egyptian culture, to not only retain his values and religious outlook…

  • Sanctifying God’s Name in the Modern World

    In 1865, almost 100 Hungarian Rabbis, (in reaction to Reform and Enlightenment movements), signed a pisak din, a halachic decision, to forbid the following in Orthodox Shuls, and additionally decreed that anyone who finds themselves in such a shul should leave immediately: The derasha given in a “secular”  language other than Yiddish or Hebrew, a…

  • Building Bridges of Faith in a Time of Hate

    This past week Jews and Christians were attacked in the midst of religious celebration and prayer.   What prompts such attacks on religion?   Though on a conscious level this hate seems to be about prejudice itself, and for Jews it seems to come from many sides of the political spectrum,  I believe that it…

  • Lessons from Joseph and His Brothers

    We have just finished reading the story of Joseph and his brothers.  In it Joseph’s brothers experience confusion, despondency, and powerlessness as their brother secretively manipulates them, falsely accusing them of being spies and thieves.  One can imagine being in their shoes and asking: Why?  Why are all these terrible things happening?  Ultimately their worst…

  • Finding Meaning in Crisis

    This week’s parsha, Vayigash , is the culmination of several chapters documenting the intriguing story of Joseph and his brothers. Imagine yourself in the shoes of the brothers – the perplexity and horror at finding their money in their sacks, the viceroy’s cup in Benjamin’s sack – framed for a crime. Having to bring their…

  • Balancing Tradition: Orthodoxy’s Struggle with Extremes

    Orthodox Judaism, in its desire to create distance from liberal denominations, at times does itself a disservice.    This phenomenon is well known.  For instance our sometimes hyper focus on the letter of the law in a way that dismisses its deeper meaning I think is often in response to liberal denominations which stress the…