• How Each Generation Contributes to the Rebuilding

    The Talmud says, “ Any generation for which the Temple is not rebuilt, it is as if it was destroyed in their days.” The Sefat Emet, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger, asks how this could be so?  There have been many generations in which there were very righteous people, is the Talmud saying that…

  • Tisha B’Av as a Path to Redemption

    This week we begin the nine days, an intensive time of mourning for the destruction of the Temple and the exile from Israel.   Rabbi Solovetchik pointed out that this process of national mourning proceeds in the opposite direction to personal mourning.   Personal mourning of the passing of a loved one begins with very…

  • Exile, Manna, and the Journey to Self-Realization

    In this week’s torah portion, Ekev, Moshe reviews some of the people’s time in the desert over the last 40 years and speaks several times about the mannah they ate in the desert.  When Moshe speaks about the mannah though, he connects it in our parsha, more than once to pain. “Remember the long way…

  • From Manna to Harvest: Remembering God in Our Success

    It all begins with an idea.

  • A Contrast Between the Mayans and the Jews

    This past week Sara and I were in Mexico touring the Mayan ruins; royal houses, city centers, ancient ball courts, and temples, spanning over a thousand years from the 5th century BCE until the 10th century CE. Though there is not much rain during half the year and these ancient cities were not generally built…

  • How Humility Shapes Our Relationship with God

    This week’s parsha, Ekev, begins with Moshe’s words of warning to the Jewish People:  V’haya ekev tishmaun, “And it will be, ekev, (“since” or “because”) you will heed these ordinances and keep them, that the Lord, your God, will keep for you the covenant and the kindness that He swore to your forefathers.”   The word…

  • Opening Your Hand: The Real Impact of Tzedakah in This World

    “If there is a needy person among you, one of your kinsmen in any of your settlements in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kinsman.  Rather, you must surely open your hand and lend him sufficient for their needs,…

  • Charity, Reward, and the Power of Our Actions

    Perhaps the greatest religious conflict, especially for Jews, is that between God’s infiniteness and God’s intimacy.  God is radically One, as the mystics put it, Ayn od milvado, “There is nothing besides God.”  So impossible and dangerous is it to anthropomorphize God, to take the risk of limiting God or pretending to know God’s essence,…

  • The Jewish Journey Through History and Holidays

    What are the Jews?  Not a religion, for there are many who would say they are Jewish but are not religious; not a nation, for a nation is identified with its land and shared culture and Jews have not had a land for most of their history and do not share cultural identities such as…

  • Blessing and Curse: Seeing the Divine Life Force in All Things

    This week’s Torah portion Re’eh-“See” begins “See I place before you today blessing and curse, the blessing that you will listen to the Mitzvot….”  The Midrah on these verses quotes the two additional verses to bring to bear on our portion, “The mitzvah is a candle and Torah is light” and “The human soul is…

  • Finding the Balance Between Nature and the Divine

    In this week’s Torah portion, Shoftim, we find two commandments about trees.  (1) Do not cut down a fruit tree even in war, and (2) Do not plant  an ashera trees near the altar. The commandment not to cut down a tree is a warning against wanton destruction which in jewish law is forbidden by…

  • Love Your Neighbor: A Call to Action in a World Full of Tragedy

    What should our response be to living in a time in which we are aware of so many tragedies around the world as they happen?  The seminal book of Musar, Misilat Yisharim, writes that we must always ask, “Mah chovati baolami”, What is my obligation in this world?”  Everything which happens is a test for…

  • Beyond Social Distancing

    We are blessed with a community that is vibrant and diverse.  Many Shuls would be overjoyed to have the liveliness that hundreds of young professionals bring to a community, the wisdom of dozens of accomplished thinkers and politicians, and the commitment that many vatikin, those who have been members of the community for decades, bring.…

  • Human Dignity and the Door to Repentance

    The Talmud tells the following story in tractate Berachot 10a: “There were hooligans in Rabbi Meir’s neighborhood who caused him a great deal of anguish. Rabbi Meir prayed for God to have mercy on them, that they should die. Rabbi Meir’s wife, Berurya, said to him: What is your thinking? On what basis do you…

  • The Golden Calf and the Freedom Found in Limitation

    In this week’s Torah portion, just 40 days after receiving the Divine Revelation at Mount Sinai, the Jewish people become anxious that Moses their leader will not return from on top of the mountain and they make for themselves a golden calf.   In the midst of their sensual, noisy, Dionysian worship of the calf…

  • The Joy and Opportunity of the High Holidays

    It is almost Rosh Hashanah and we all approach the High Holidays with different feelings and perspectives.  Some are worried about the coming year and hope that prayer will secure a healthy and prosperous year for them.  Others want to fulfill their chivuvim – obligations and mitzvot – by praying, hearing the shofar and fasting. …

  • Building Community Through Exile and Renewal

    This week’s parsha, Ki Tavo, begins with the first fruits.   The Torah tells us that the farmer in the Land of Israel must bring a basket of the first fruits of the orchard to the Temple, give them to the Kohen to wave, and make the following declaration:  “An Aramean tried to destroy my…

  • The Call of Elul: Listening as the First Step to Return

    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…

  • The Transformative Journey of Yom Kippur

    It is almost Rosh Hashanah and we all approach the High Holidays with different feelings and perspectives.  Some are worried about the coming year and hope that prayer will secure a healthy and prosperous year for them.  Others want to fulfill their chivuvim -obligations and mitzvot – by praying, hearing the shofar and fasting.  Still…

  • Teshuvah Through Love: Transforming Faults into Merits

    The Talmud states that teshuvah done from fear renders one’s sins, even if they were done intentionally, as if they were committed unintentionally, but teshuvah from love actually transforms intentional sins into merits. How is this possible? I think the answer lies in the nature of love itself.  Love results in some degree of unity…