Friday Shabbat Shalom
Dec 6, 2024
The Torah repeatedly portrays transformative journeys where departure from home signifies not just a physical relocation but a profound spiritual evolution. We saw this with Abraham and Sarah in Parashat Lech Lecha a few weeks ago, and this week we see it in Parashat Vayeitzei with Jacob, their grandchild. In Lech Lecha, G!D commands Abraham: “Go forth from your land, your birthplace, and your father’s house, to the land I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1) Abraham’s departure is a leap of faith. He leaves behind the familiar to establish a covenantal relationship with God. This journey symbolizes the move from comfort to challenge, from the known to the unknown, as Abraham becomes the father of a nation. Jacob’s journey begins under different circumstances.
Fleeing from the wrath of Esau, Jacob embarks on a path filled with uncertainty: “And Jacob left Be’er Sheva and went toward Haran.” (Genesis 28:10)
Nov 29, 2024
The practice of thanksgiving is meant to awaken us to the blessings we might otherwise take for granted. But for many of us, Thanksgiving this year is overshadowed both by the violence in Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon, and by the strong feelings many of us have about it — feelings often at odds with others around the holiday table. So allow me to offer a different kind of gratitude practice in the hope that it might provide a little solace, and even a little coexistence... spirituality in general is not about denying the presence of suffering, or even evil, in the world.
Nov 22, 2024
I really identify with this Torah portion of Chayei Sarah, because parts of it parallel aspects of my own life. After Sarah dies at the outset of this week's parsha and following Abraham’s purchase of the Cave of Machpelah in Hevron to serve as her burial site, we come to the story of Rebecca becoming the wife of Isaac, Abraham’s son.
Nov 15, 2024
Idolatry is the practice of treating something of relative importance as though it were of ultimate significance. In our idolatrous age, we often act as though money, careers, sex appeal or prestige are of ultimate importance, when in fact, they are only worthwhile to the degree that they can contribute to our becoming better, more compassionate and more responsible people. Today's Torah reading highlights another source of idolatry. It is altogether common to treat honesty as the highest value possible.
Nov 8, 2024
Imagine that you are Abraham, 75 years old, living ~4000 years ago in northern Mesopotamia in the city of Haran, which means “crossroads.” Suddenly, you undergo an epiphany—a moment of Divine revelation that calls to you: “Lech Lecha-Go forth from your country, from your native land, from your father's house to the land that I will show you." In other words - Leave your entire civilization, your culture, your city and almost everyone you know in the world and go to a place you don’t know but will be shown to you. Jaw drop.
Nov 1, 2024
Of the many profound lessons that Parashat Noah teaches us about relationships, I’d like to focus on the one we learn from the covenant, the berit, that God makes with Noah in the wake of the flood. A covenant is, fundamentally, a record of the terms of a relationship. Reading the terms of a covenant can teach us about the components and terms of that relationship. This is the first covenant that appears in Tanakh (Jewish Bible) and its function is self-restraint in the name of sustaining and preserving relationship.
Oct 23, 2024
I am experiencing such a panoply of emotions as we approach Simchat Torah this year: sadness, despair, and rage, at the memories of last year’s Simchat Torah massacre, but also giddy triumph, hope, and faith. I feel differently than I did a week ago… God pulls the strings behind the curtain, where we cannot see His interventions on our behalf until lo! we are saved.
Oct 16, 2024
What is truly remarkable is that Sukkot is called, by tradition zeman simḥateinu / our time of joy. That, to me, is the wonder at the heart of the Jewish experience: that Jews throughout the ages were able to experience risk and uncertainty at every level of their existence and yet they were still able to rejoice. That is spiritual courage of a high order. Faith is not certainty; faith is the courage to live with uncertainty.
Oct 11, 2024
May we all embrace the majesty of what praying toהמלך can potentially provide for us as we work toward self-transformation & renewal (בריאה חדשה), reconnect to our own power to do good, and reconnect with our innate value and innate value of all others. We are living through a moment in history where the choices of today will have enormous implications for the future. This is a time for us to be humbled but also find our moral clarity…
Sep 27, 2024
The sound of the shofar is primal & ancient. It produces a strange sense of awe and reverence. Think back to that moment before the first blast is sounded; a hushed expectancy fills the synagogue. At the moment we hear the first piercing note, we are struck with an almost childlike wonderment. And for most of us, it is one of our earliest childhood memories. The notes of the shofar are not beautiful by any musical standard, but somehow, we find in their thin piercing blasts something that calls to us.
