This week’s double Torah Portion, Behar-Bechukotai (Leviticus 25:1-27:34) contains a listing of the blessings that will be granted to the Israelites for following God’s commandments: rain in the proper seasons, and abundance and peace in the Promised...
A Jewish folktale tells of a man visiting hell, being amazed to find its inhabitants all seated at long tables, with fancy tablecloths, beautiful silverware, and a spread of delicious looking food and delicacies. As he looked more closely, he noticed...
By Rabbi Dale Schreiber
• Published April 10, 2013
Seventeen years ago, our daughter invited me to become a bat mitzvah with her. In the world I grew up in, bat mitzvah was not a choice. This lifecycle was something reserved for my brothers, not for their older sisters. Our family embraced the transformations...
This week’s Torah portion, Shemini, wraps up the eight-day inauguration ceremony of the Tabernacle and its Kohanim, the priests. On the eighth day of the inauguration, as a coda to the process, a calf was brought on the altar and a Divine fire emerged...
All of my writing teachers stress the importance of writing. “Duh,” you might think, but I don’t mean the significance of the writing itself—what I’m referring to is the importance of the starting, putting words onto paper. I have been staring...
A few weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting at the Central Agency for Jewish Education with some outstanding local religious school teachers. Our topic was “The Exodus as a Master Story in Judaism.” At the outset, I wrote this title on the board...
The book of Exodus ends with two portions, Vayakheil and Pekudei, one of the seven possible double portions calculated to keep the alignment of the Jewish year. Each of the five books in the Torah has several names. In Hebrew, the Book of Exodus is...
BY RABBI JOSEF DAVIDSON
• Published February 27, 2013
It’s a theme that is familiar to all, whether as expressed in the cliché, “While the cat’s away, the mice will play,” or in the myriad of productions in which the adolescents, in the absence of their parents, do something wild and crazy — inviting...
By Rachel LaVictoire
• Published February 22, 2013
This week, my alarm woke me at the following times in the morning, 9, 9:30, 8:50, 11 and 8:20. On Saturday I slept until 2:30 in the afternoon. Mondays I have class from 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., but Thursdays I only go from 2:30-4 p.m. Wednesdays, I am away...
By Rabbi Brad Horwitz
• Published February 20, 2013
This week Jews all over the world will celebrate the fun holiday of Purim. Part of that celebration will include the reading of the Scroll of Esther, which recounts the story of the Jews in Persia. One interesting phenomenon is that in the Scroll...
By Rachel LaVictorie
• Published February 15, 2013
I like to be in control. There’s safety and security in feeling as if you have authority in your own life. I like to plan my days, I like my suggestions to be implemented, and I like to solve my own problems. I realize the irony in this claim after...
BY RABBI JOSEF DAVIDSON
• Published February 13, 2013
Over the past several years, we have called on professionals to remodel different parts of our home. Every time we met with one of them, he or she would dazzle us with swatches and squares and plans and colors and fabrics and dimensions until my eyes...
