• The Beauty of Community and Prayer in Judaism

    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…

  • The Balance of Mercy and Justice in Judaism

    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…

  • Sacrifice, Mystery, and Meaning

    Now to this week’s Torah portion, Trumah, in which we begin to read the description of the Tabernacle and its vessels.   The laws of the Tabernacle take up an enormous amount of space in the Torah.  Is the Tabernacle really so central to Jewish life that it should occupy more space than any other…

  • The Mishkan: A Sanctuary of Spiritual Maturity

    In the beginning of this week’s Torah Portion, Terumah, Moses has just ascended Mount Sinai after the saying of the aseret hadibrot, Ten Commandments, and G-d now commands Moses to tell the Jewish People to collect funds for the building of the Mishkan, (Tabernacle), a moving Temple the Jewish people traveled with in the desert. …

  • Concrete Worship or Spiritual Growth

    In the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Terumah, Moses has just ascended Mount Sinai after the saying of the aseret hadibrot, Ten Commandments, and God now commands Moses to tell the Jewish people to collect funds for the building of the Mishkan, (Tabernacle), a moving temple the Jewish people traveled with in the desert.…

  • Embracing the Roles of Leadership in Community

    This week’s Torah portion begins with God speaking to Moshe but here God addresses Moshe in an uncommon way, with the words “V’Ata,”  “And You.”  One verse later, we have this opening again, and then a few verses later we have this phrase repeated a third time, after which it disappears as quickly as it…

  • Connecting the Temple’s Sacred Spaces

    In this week’s Torah portion, Tetzaveh, Moses is told to command the Jewish people to take pure olive oil to light the menorah in the Temple.  The menorah was lit each day as one of the first services in the temple in Jerusalem.  The description of the actual fashioning of the gold menorah was already…

  • Purim and the Eternal Struggle: The War Between G-d and Amalek

    This week’s Torah portion, titzaveh, almost always falls during the week of the holiday of Purim which this year will be this Wednesday night, March 4th and Thursday, March 5th.  Purim was the day 2500 years ago in Persia that Haman tried to annihilate all the Jews and Queen Esther saved them.  Haman was a…

  • A Call to Care for One Another in Times of Crisis

    This week’s parsha, Ki Tisa, speaks of counting the Jewish people by means of the half shekel.  The Torah states that this was done in order to avoid a plague that could result from the counting.  Indeed King David, against the better judgement of his advisors, insisted on counting the people and this did result…

  • The 13 Attributes of Mercy and the Role of Perspective

    This week’s Torah portion, Ki Tisa, contains the famous 13 Attributes of Mercy. We say them on fast days, and  on Yom Kippur we say them over and over in an attempt to beseech God for mercy.  As the Talmud says in Rosh Hashanah, 17b, “God appeared to Moses and taught him the 13 Attributes,…

  • Shabbat, the Mishkan, and the Golden Calf

    In this week’s parsha, Ki Tisa, the Jewish people, just after hearing God at Mount Sinai, worship the golden calf.  This of course is a great sin for which Moshe appeals to God’s mercy and ultimately, gains forgiveness for the people. Aviva Zorenberg points out that if we look at the larger context of the…

  • The Balance Between Passion and Purpose in the Mishkan

    This week’s double parsha is Vayakhel-Pekudei which concludes the book of Shemot.   The parsha begins with the commandment of shabbat.  But if we view these parshiot about the mishkan from 30000 feet an interesting pattern emerges.   The point is made by Avivah Zornberg that the story of Moshe on the mountain learning about…

  • The Call to Reconnect: Finding God After Distance and Sin

    This week’s Torah portion, Pikudeh, the last in the book of Exodus, includes the completion of the Tabernacle, the moveable Temple that the Jewish people carried with them in the desert.  Following its erection the Divine presence rests upon it in fulfillment of God’s Biblical promise: “Make a sanctuary for Me and I will dwell…

  • From Muggings to Meaning: Reconnecting to God and Community on Shabbat

    As you know by now Sunday night while walking through Rose Park I was mugged and robbed.   Two individuals who no doubt saw a person they perceived to have expendable cash, jumped me.  I don’t blame them, people do such things out of desperation.  We often have little control over what happens to us,…

  • More Than Numbers: The Sacredness of Names in the Torah

    The name of this week’s Torah portion is Shemot, which literally means, “names.”  Though content-wise the book itself might be more aptly known by its latin name, Exodus, it does indeed begin with the counting by name of the children of Israel:  “And these are the names of the children of Israel who came to…

  • Tabernacle, Shabbat, and the Risk of Idolatry

    With this week’s Torah portion, Pikudey, we will finish the book of Shemot, Exodus, and the reading of a 5 torah portion series that describes the tabernacle, a moving temple the Jews had in the desert, and its erection.   In these portions God describes the tabernacle to Moses while he is on the mountain…