In a world in which we value action, speed, productivity and rapid-fire response, perhaps the most incredible thing to ask of a person is to simply stop.Yet, that is exactly what the Torah commands us to do.In this week’s Torah portion, we are commanded...

Emor tells us: “These are My fixed times; times set aside for Me, which you shall proclaim as sacred occasions for convocation.”Emor is translated as “saying.”   The word is mentioned more than 20 times in the portion. God spoke to Moses, saying,...

In his most famous work, “The Dybbuk,” Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport, the Jewish Russian author who wrote under the pseudonym of S. Ansky, created a character named Rabbi Azriel, who taught the following with regard to the holy confluence of time, person,...

Passover is about relationships.  Over and over, the Torah expresses the Passover Seder in intergenerationally related terms, such as:  “When your child shall ask you, ‘What is this service’ ” and, “And you shall say to them, ‘With a strong...

“Our tale begins in degradation and ends in praise.”This is more or less the entire original seder “script” outlined in the Mishnah nearly 2,000 years ago. It outlines not only the story of Exodus, but also a way of looking at Jewish and divine...

We conclude this week with a special Shabbat, Shabbat Ha-gadol/The Great Sabbath, the Shabbat that precedes Passover.The name Shabbat Ha-gadol is derived from Malachi 3:4-4:24, the Haftarah, or reading from the Prophets, for this Shabbat, which declares,...

In my teens, when I first started thinking of becoming a rabbi, I spent a summer shadowing several rabbis in St. Louis to get a sense of what they did every day and to try and imagine whether I could ever stand in their shoes. By the end of the summer,...

Sherlock Holmes is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. The detective’s uncanny observational and deductive powers allow him to see so much about a person, and not merely what’s on the surface.  He can tell that you’re a pediatric...

Vayikra – And G-d called to Moses …  This week, as we begin the book of Vayikra/Leviticus, the relationship between G-d and the people begins to expand, as do the relationships between the people themselves. We shift from a narrative about others...

When I was in elementary school, I had a classmate who wore a shirt and tie to school every day. Although I remember his distinctive wardrobe choice decades later, I never spent much time thinking about his motives. Looking back, it would seem this was...

This week’s Torah portion, Ki Tissa, begins with a census. Moses is instructed to count the number of men available to be conscripted in the event of the need for self-defense against any enemy forces that might be encountered during their wandering...

“And you shall command the children of Israel, and they shall take to you pure olive oil, crushed for lighting, to kindle the lamps continually.”— Exodus 27:20Of the seven species associated with Israel, land of wheat, barley, grape, fig and pomegranate,...