Shabbat Weekly Dvar Torah
Jun 21, 2024
This Dvar Torah is specially dedicated in memory of Marshall Baltuch z”l, a past Director of the Miami March of the Living. Our parsha for this week – Beha’alotecha – is a treasury of teachings that call out to be illuminated in the light of Mussar. Mussar is a Jewish spiritual practice that provides practical guidance on how to live an ethical and meaningful life, based on the idea that cultivating inner virtues can help people improve themselves. I want to focus on the teaching about humility (anava) we find in B’Midbar / Numbers 12:3 that compels our attention above all the other wonderful elements in this parsha.
Jun 14, 2024
Last week I was away on a seven-day silent Jewish meditation retreat led by the Or HaLev organization under the leadership of Rabbi Dr. James Jacobson-Maisels. The idea of a silent Jewish meditation retreat (let alone 7 days of it) evokes one of three reactions from people: 1. Isn’t silent and Jewish an oxymoron? 2. YOU are doing this?!? No Way!!! 3. Oh that’s kind of cool. Tell me more… I’m going to assume, dear reader, that you are the third reaction and tell you a bit more.
Jun 7, 2024
This upcoming Tuesday evening, we will welcome the holiday of Shavuot. Shavuot is the second of Judaism’s three pilgrimage festivals, the Shalosh Regalim, which include Pessach, Shavuot, and Sukkot. In ancient Israel, all three were agricultural festivals celebrated by pilgrimages to Jerusalem, feasts, thanksgiving sacrifices, and offerings of bikkurim (first fruits) to the Temple.
May 31, 2024
This week’s Dvar Torah on Parsha Bechukotai was written by Anita Kurzer Givner, CAJE’s outgoing chair of the Leo Martin March of the Living Committee and delivered to the Committee this week. We thank her for her outstanding service to our community!
May 24, 2024
Israel’s legendary Foreign Minister Abba Eban once stood at the podium of the United Nations general assembly with a Bible in his hand, declaring before the whole world that the Jewish people’s title deed to the Land of Israel is over 3,000 years old. Rabbi Menachem Froman of blessed memory disagreed… “The Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel” has been a longstanding slogan of Religious Zionism, but Rav Menachem, settler leader that he was, never tired of telling all who would listen that the Land of Israel does not belong to the People of Israel. On the contrary, the People of Israel belong to the Land of Israel.
May 17, 2024
Anyone who feels very connected to Israel and has been following the cultural zeitgeist there knows that Yom Haatzmaut was a complicated day for many people — perhaps you as well. How do we celebrate Israel when so many are still held hostage (we hope they are alive) and so many soldiers and civilians are recently deceased due to the war with Hamas? Many Israelis struggled with what to do-- barbecue and go to the beach and have a “fun” day while so many are suffering?
May 10, 2024
This week’s Parsha Kedoshim, which focuses on moral and ethical behavior, came exactly at the right time as we embark into this post-October 7th world.
Kedoshim, often referred to as the “Holiness Code,” highlights the central importance of holiness and ethical living in Jewish tradition. It emphasizes that holiness is not confined to ritual observance but extends to all aspects of life, including interpersonal relationships, business dealings, and moral conduct.
May 3, 2024
This week’s Torah portion is Acharei Mot, which describes the process of placing the sins of the community on a goat that gets sent into the wilderness on Yom Kippur. This goat was later known in English as a “scapegoat.” Anyone watching the student protests happening on college campuses around the county (among many other protests outside of campuses) can see that Zionists and the State of Israel are being scapegoated for the entire Middle East conflict and for many other perceived evils in the world.
Apr 26, 2024
The time from Passover to Shavuot is like another ‘High Holy Days’ Season. One reason is the sheer number of holidays that parallels the Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemeni Atzeret/Simchat Torah ‘deluge’ of September/October. We have Pesach, Yom HaShoah, Yom HaAtzma’ut, Lag BaOmer and Shavuot all in a seven-week period. The spring holidays are of tremendous historical meaning and very intense (the ridding of chametz/leavened products), the Seder, Holocaust memorials and the intense emotion of Israeli Independence Day, while ending with the quiet and calm of study on Shavuot.
Apr 19, 2024
The Exodus is mentioned in the weekly celebration of Shabbat in the words of the Kiddush, in the daily ritual of prayer in the siddur following the Shema/V’ahavta (in the Geula prayer when we sing Mi Chamocha), in the reasons for the custom of wearing tefillin and tallit, as well as in the ethical mandate not to oppress the stranger, remembering that we were once strangers in the land of Egypt, which is mentioned over 36 times in the Torah.
