When I was a very young rabbi in my first position as B’nai B’rith chaplain to the Mayo Clinic system’s hospitals, I met a woman from a Hasidic community during my rounds one day. As we were talking, she gave voice to a crisis in faith. As...

Parashat Emor opens with a list of laws and regulations that outline differences between the Temple Priests and the rest of the community: The priests must mourn differently, marry differently, treat their bodies differently and fiercely guard the ritual...

Our Torah portions this week are the double portions of Acharei Mot and Kedoshim. Parashat Kedoshim contains, arguably, the most well-known verse in the Torah – “Love your neighbor as yourself; I am Adonai” (Lev. 19:18). Sometimes known as “the...

As a child, I remember hearing the familiar refrain, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never hurt me.” Even in my youth, I knew this was flawed. The ways we interact with one another and the words we use matter deeply, a lesson that...

It was Tuesday, Sept. 23, 1997, when I received the call from my father that my beloved mother had finally succumbed to her metastatic lung cancer. At our congregation in Chattanooga, Tenn., I was deeply involved in preparations for the High Holy Days,...

Over the past many months, we have been on a journey together. We transitioned from the month of Shevat to Adar, changing our outlook to one of happiness and rejoicing as we prepared for the celebration of Purim. As we say, “mi she’nichnas Adar marbim...

It starts with a command: Tzav. Same root as mitzvah. Here, though, there is an extra urgency. The voice of the Talmud came to me in my morning meditation. Extra urgency, Tzav, hurry! Do this thing.What thing? Lift up the ashes, thus says your Torah....

In the Middle Ages, salt was so expensive it was sometimes referred to as white gold.Perhaps, then, it is not so surprising that as the Book of Leviticus opens to describe for us the sacrifices that the Israelites are to bring to God now that the Tabernacle...

How do you spin a goat?  What would it even mean to “spin a goat?”  Why would one want to spin a goat?  Yet in describing all the work that the Israelites did to build the tabernacle, the Torah says, “All the women whose hearts inspired them...

Ki Tisa begins when you lift the head of the B’nei Yisrael. To an ancient listener, “lifting the head” signified a census. This one indicated who would contribute toward building the Tent of Meeting, where the Divine Presence would rest in the midst...

You shall make a frontlet of pure gold and engrave on it the seal inscription: Holy to the Eternal. Suspend it on a cord of blue, so that it may remain on the headdress; it shall remain on the front of the headdress. It shall be on Aaron’s forehead....

Let them make me a holy place, and I will dwell among them. According to all that I show you – the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furnishings – so you shall you make it.  — Exodus 25:8-9The Book of Exodus begins with the...