Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose
• Published March 11, 2015
This coming Shabbat, Jews the world over will be blessed with a uniquely “thick” liturgical experience. In addition to a lengthy Torah reading spanning the two concluding sections of Sefer Shemot (Exodus) — the double portion of VaYakhel and...
“Not-one, not-two, not-three” – those who attend daily services will recognize this as the method employed in counting the number of people in attendance in order to determine if a quorum, or minyan, has been reached. For millennia Judaism has had...
By Rabbi Hyim Shafner
• Published February 18, 2015
This week’s Torah portion, Tetzaveh, almost always falls during the week of the holiday of Purim, which this year will be Wednesday night, March 4, and Thursday, March 5. Purim was the day 2,500 years ago in Persia when Haman tried to annihilate all...
By Rabbi James Stone Goodman
• Published February 11, 2015
I preside several times a month over a small synagogue that opens onto the Royal Dining Room at Covenant Place, where mostly older folks live. I get a kick out of that name. I always think I’m on some kind of cruise ship – which I am.The kaddishim...
By Rabbi Scott Slarskey
• Published February 4, 2015
Do you know the Ten Utterances (sometimes called the Ten Commandments, even though they contain within them more than 10 discrete imperatives)? Do you believe it is worth knowing the Ten Utterances, or are you even aware of the story of the giving of...
Today’s college graduates are moving back home after graduation in far greater numbers than even a decade ago. This trend, scholars suggest, is a sign of a new life phase known as odyssey. Over the past generation, the typical stages of life have gone...
BY RABBI TRACY NATHAN
• Published January 14, 2015
By Rabbi Tracy Nathan Exodus is called the Book of Names in Hebrew (Shemot), and Parashat Vaera continues to remind us of the value of names. At the end of last week’s Torah reading, Pharaoh responds to God’s call to release the Israelites by making...
“These are the names of the Children of Israel …” With these words, the book of Exodus begins. And with the recitation of the names, we encounter a new chapter in the life of our people and our history. We move beyond the family drama of the book...
By Rabbi Mark L. Shook
• Published December 31, 2014
A very wise person once said: “The definition of a dysfunctional family was any family that had more than one member in it.” Our Patriarch, Jacob/Israel, presided over a very dysfunctional family. Just how dysfunctional his family was is laid out...
Hanukkah is behind us, yet we are still entrenched in the winter holiday season and everything it brings. For some of us, that means parties, celebrations and happy homecomings. Yet for just as many of us, and for mirrored reasons, this is one of...
By Rabbi Brad Horwitz
• Published December 10, 2014
Parashat Vayeshev recounts the story of Joseph and his brothers. Jacob loved Joseph and favored him over all his other sons. He made him a special ornamental coat, symbolic of this favoritism. Joseph’s brothers became jealous and hateful of Joseph....
When was the last time you really stared into another person＊s eyes? If you can remember that moment, what were you thinking? And did you say what you were thinking? Staring into someone＊s eyes is among the more intimate ways humans can interact. ...
