Shabbat Weekly Dvar Torah
Feb 18, 2022
Jewish education forms the backbone of our communities. We assure the community of vitality and endurance through the Hebrew studies of our children, the outreach programs for those considering conversion, and the continuing education programs for other seeking adults. And those programs need our support.
Feb 11, 2022
On some weekday evenings, when our schedule permits, my wife and I will watch something on TV before retiring for the night. We want a few minutes to sit and laugh together. We’ve found that laughing is more conducive to good sleep than the news, or a series about some sort of futuristic dystopia that all too closely resembles daily reality.
Feb 4, 2022
... perhaps it is not such a coincidence that this week’s parsha about building the Tabernacle, a thing of space, is the backdrop for the controversy swirling around Whoopi Goldberg’s statement that to her eyes, as an African-American woman, the Holocaust wasn’t about racism, since it was one group of white people (Nazis) murdering another group of white people (Jews).
Jan 28, 2022
When we decided that my eldest son had reached that fateful age - the age when it seemed appropriate that he have a cell phone - we waded in with hesitation and deep reservation. It was uncharted territory for us as parents, and we were filled with anxiety. Were we making the right decision?
Jan 21, 2022
The difficulty with providing any kind of imagery for G!D is that people end up confusing metaphor with the reality. This week’s Parshat Yitro contains the 10 Statements (not commandments, as it’s been erroneously rendered in English) within which we find “Thou shalt not make graven images….” Why is it such a horror— one of the top 10! —to make a graven image of the Divine?
Jan 14, 2022
If you’re anything like me, you spend a lot of time up in your head thinking about getting your work done--planning, striving, checking items off the mental to-do list, worrying about how to keep all the balls in the air and how to meet this or that deadline or get ahead.
Jan 7, 2022
Immersed in the drama of liberating his enslaved people, Moses prepares to appear before Pharaoh, to insist that the Israelites be allowed to leave Egypt. God instructs his servant, Moses, "Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these My signs among them..." [Shemot/ Exodus 10:1]
Dec 31, 2021
As we enter the Book of Exodus with last week's Parashat Shemot and this week's Parashat Va'eira, I want to bring you a great insight… There are many life-metaphors to be found in the wonderful world of boats. Boats and people both embark on journeys, and both can reach their destinations or sink.
Dec 24, 2021
In Parashat Shemot, we find a clear instance of what we now call “antisemitism,” a term coined in 1879 by Wilhelm Marr, an anti-Jewish agitator in Germany, as a more modern, euphemistic and non-religious substitute for the German term, judenhass, Jew-hatred.
Dec 17, 2021
Vayehi literally means “and he lived” and yet, we learn about Jacob and Joseph’s death in this parsha. Vayehi begins in a way that is unique among the weekly parshiyot-- between every two other parshiyot in the Torah, we find a line break or space in the Torah scroll. But Vayehi is the exception. It begins without any clear demarcation from the end of Parashat Vayiggash, the parasha that comes before it. Perhaps one reason might be to cover up the loss of Jacob?
