Last week, I read an article online that left me feeling horribly guilty and upset with myself. It made me feel that not only was everything I do as a parent completely wrong, but also I was scarring my children for life. The next day, clearly not...
Four times the Torah instructs us to tell our children of the Exodus from Egypt. The Torah reads, “And you shall tell your child on that day...” The rabbis inferred from this repetition that there are four different kinds of children — the wise,...
The opening section of this week’s parashah, Acharei Mot, is especially familiar because it is also read publicly on Yom ha-Kippurim. The most memorable section is the “scapegoat” upon which Israel’s sins were transferred and sent out into the...
Are you pure?You were born pure. The traditional morning prayers contain the following blessing, which even in the Recon-structionist siddur “Kol Haneshamah” (Reconstructionists generally eschew supernaturalism), begins, “My God, the soul which...
By Rabbi James Stone Goodman
• Published March 26, 2014
Try to imagine an ancestor to whom one of the great mysteries (among many) was birth. It’s not too great a stretch, especially if you’ve had a child. Great mystery and wonder and delight and fear and awe all bound up together even for us moderns....
There is something really comforting about tradition, about doing things that connect us to our personal and collective past. For some of us, this means that every year, on certain holidays, we cook favorite family recipes that we have eaten since childhood. ...
Rabbi Roxanne J.S. Shapiro
• Published March 12, 2014
This week’s Torah portion, Tzav, details elaborate instructions for the ritual of sacrifice and the description of the actual ordination of Aaron and his sons (These directions were given in Exodus, but now carried out). If one can make it through the...
By Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose
• Published March 5, 2014
Each year as springtime approaches, I recall with great affection sitting next to my mentor and friend, Rabbi Bernard Lipnick (z’’l), on the bimah of our shul. For it was on Shabbes mornings that our great teacher would provide me with his special...
Every October, there is one particular morning when our congregation’s Religious School telephone begins ringing off the hook at exactly 9 a.m. and doesn’t stop ringing all day long. That’s the day, somewhat arbitrarily chosen, when families of...
Rabbi James Stone Goodman
• Published February 19, 2014
On the heels of the molten beast (make us a god, we said last week, because that man who led us -- we don't know what became of him). Did we want a god or did we want a leader? What kind of leader? A master of ceremonies leader or someone to sit over...
By Rabbi Josef A. Davidson
• Published February 13, 2014
My formative years were during the 1950s and 1960s. During these decades, there were enormous changes in culture, in the physical sciences, and in psychological, sociological and anthropological sciences. The music of the 1960’s also reflected these...
By Rabbi Scott B. Saulson
• Published January 30, 2014
Red lines ... lines in the sand. The roots of these expressions refer to bellicose dares testing the boldness of presumptive trespassers. Moreover, their usage suggests grave consequences should trespass occur.How ironic, then, that the longing of Man...
