By Rachel LaVictoire
• Published November 14, 2012
With Thanksgiving and Hanukkah fast approaching, this time of year seems to get hectic for everyone. Parents are calling family members, making travel arrangements, going to the grocery store, pulling out that old recipe for the perfect dessert, going...
By Rabbi Josef Davidson
• Published November 14, 2012
One of the challenges that is facing the Jewish community today is reaching out to the unaffiliated and the disaffiliated — the people within the Jewish community who are counted but cannot as yet be counted upon as resources or as beneficiaries of...
By Rachel LaVictoire, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published November 7, 2012
This week’s Torah portion includes the death of both Sarah and Abraham, a matriarch and patriarch. In this spirit, I would like to reach out to all of those who have recently lost someone, and to anyone who is currently observing a yahrzeit.I would...
By Rabbi Seth D Gordon
• Published October 31, 2012
No Torah section may be more intellectually puzzling, more emotionally disturbing, and more polarizing then Genesis 22, known as “Akeidat Yitzchak,” “The Binding of Isaac.” For a deep and lively spiritual and intellectual encounter with friends...
By Rabbi Lane Steinger, Shir Hadash Reconstructionist Community
• Published October 24, 2012
Torah Portion: Lech Lecha, Genesis 12:1-17:27 The Eternal said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1.) …what is most striking here is the indeterminacy of the journey....
By Rabbi Randy Fleisher
• Published October 17, 2012
I had the great blessing a few years ago of officiating a wedding in Hawaii. The chuppah was set on a lush green space with the Pacific Ocean as an alluring background. The handful of friends and family had traveled to witness the union of a Jewish...
By Rabbi Josef A. Davidson
• Published September 27, 2012
Gratitude. It is a value that we inculcate in our children from early on. When they receive a gift, they are told to say “thank you.” Later, we teach them to write a thank you card. Gratitude is a basic social necessity and nicety.In this...
BY RABBI BRAD HORWITZ
• Published September 19, 2012
During this season of the Jewish High Holidays, it is our responsibility to do tshuvah (repentance). Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there are 10 days called Aseret Yemei Tshuvah or the Ten Days of Repentance. It is this time when we focus on...
By Rabbi Roxanne J.S. Shapiro
• Published September 12, 2012
Today, all of you are standing before the Eternal your God…in order to establish you this day as God’s people and in order to be your God… I [God] make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone, but both with those who are standing...
By Rabbi Mark L. Shook
• Published September 5, 2012
Our Torah portion for this week is known as Ki Tavo. It begins with the 26th Chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy. The entire book of Deuteronomy is presented as a sort of last will and testament of Moses. Knowing that he shall not enter the Promised Land,...
By Rabbi James Stone Goodman
• Published August 29, 2012
Here’s a tough one: What about stoning a rebellious kid? When a man has a son who is stubborn, and a rebel one who does not listen to the voice of his father or the voice of his mother — and they discipline him and he still does not listen to them...
By Rabbi Ryan S. Dulkin
• Published August 22, 2012
When it comes to politics, does money talk, and if it does, is that a good thing? In the relatively recent landmark decision of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court’s majority answered affirmatively, arguing that money is...
