This past week I shared a story in Shul which highlights one of the many ways that Kesher Israel is not only a vibrant community in Washington, D.C., but how, as the central congregation in our nation’s capital, makes deep impressions upon the world. Through the members it serves and the many groups and individuals…

In last week’s Torah portion, the Torah was given at Mount Sinai to the Jewish people. At the end of that parshat, the Torah tells us about building an altar: “Make for Me an altar of earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every…

We have recently finished reading about Yetziat Mitzrayim, the Exodus from Egypt, and soon it will be Pesach. The Talmud says that at the seder one must see themselves as actually having left Egypt. But if this is so, why not act out the Exodus? Dress the part (as some sefardim do), wear shackles and make bricks, experience…

This week’s Torah portion, Mishpatim, is filled with the laws.  This parsha comes right after the giving of the Torah because law is so central to Jewish life.   It is one of Orhtodox Judaism’s hallmarks and great strengths that halacha, Jewish law, is at the pulsating center of individual and communal life-but it is…

This past shabbat i spoke of Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law.   The Torah tells us Yitro heard all that God did for the Jewish people in redeeming them from Egypt and came to moses and the Jewish people in the desert at Mount Sinai.   A few verses latter Moses tells Yitro the story of God…

This week’s parsha  is Mishpatim, which is filled with dozens of interpersonal laws.  The Jewish People  are a nation who have not worshiped God before.  They were slaves for several generations in a polytheistic land. Since the Torah was just given to them wouldn’t it make more sense to follow it with a parsha of…

This week’s torah portion, Mishpatim, literally means “laws,” and contains a large array of interpersonal civil commandments and regulations.   Just before this portion the Torah teaches about the building of an altar to G-d.  The altar, which symbolizes relationship and peace between the Jews and G-d, must be built out of whole stones, since…