When watching the local news or reading the headlines, it can be depressing to learn about all of the suffering and hardship in our community and in the world. Stories about crime, shootings, war and other acts of violence often dominate the top stories....
By Maharat Rori Picker Neiss
• Published July 29, 2015
The emotion is palpable. Moses, the great leader of the Israelite people, has devoted his entire life to the Jewish people and to bringing them closer towards the fulfillment of God’s promise that they be God’s people in the Holy Land. He has...
Torah records ideas that represent hope for humankind. The Book of Numbers ends with an obligation for justice and a respect for boundaries. Deuteronomy, or D’varim in Hebrew, is the last of the five books of Torah. It represents a repetition and a...
By Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose
• Published July 8, 2015
“If Your Torah was not my source of inspired delight, I would surely succumb to the afflictions and vicissitudes of life!” — Psalms 119:92I never cease to marvel at the profundity, relevance and contemporaneity of our Holy Torah’s teachings,...
A quiz. If someone offers you a suggestion for improvement in some area of your work or personal life, do you: A) ignore the advice; B) take the advice seriously; C) take the opportunity to give this person some “advice” you’ve been waiting for...
In this week’s Torah portion, Hukkat, the Israelites are encamped at Kadesh, where the death of Miriam has just occurred. Though generally an oasis, at this time there is no water for the people to drink. They come to Moses and Aaron, not to console...
By Maharat Rori Picker Neiss
• Published June 10, 2015
It seems curious that after all of the promises God made to our ancestors – the covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the future foretold to Moses; the great miracles and wonder in which the Israelites were taken out of their slavery in Egypt; the...
Last year, I found myself in St Louis on Memorial Day making arrangements for our upcoming move to town. My hosts invited me to join them on their annual Memorial Day visit to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. This visit was one way they chose to...
Behar and Behukotai, the last parashiyot of the book of Leviticus, outline a series of agricultural and economic laws and conclude with a series of conditional blessings, if we remain faithful to the Covenant, and curses, if we do not.
These laws...
By Rabbi Josef Davidson
• Published April 29, 2015
My favorite professor in rabbinical school taught Semitic languages, and I took virtually every course that he taught in Aramaic, Syriac and Arabic. His own Ph. D. had been earned at the Sorbonne, and his thesis was the culmination of his study of what...
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov once told a story about a young prince. One day, he suddenly decided that he was no longer a human being but, rather, a turkey. As a turkey, he sat underneath the table, naked, and picked at bits of bread and bones. The king and...
Few words can describe the experience encapsulated in two simple words in this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Shemini. Upon hearing that his two older sons had been killed in a fire while attempting to perform service to God, Aaron is distraught. His...
