Following my transfer to a new elementary school in the fourth grade, I was offered the opportunity to play a musical instrument. Music had always been a huge part of my life, whether in synagogue, which I attended each Shabbat morning with my grandfather,...

In this week’s Torah portion, Shelach L’cha, the Israelites find themselves standing on the border of Eretz Yisrael, the land promised to their ancestors by God. After suffering for so long at the hands of the Egyptians, they will finally have a home...

The priestly blessing found in next week’s parashah, Naso, is one that has been an important part of our people’s story for three millennia.   In the days when the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the priests offered this blessing on behalf of G-d to...

It’s difficult to imagine that anyone dreams of becoming a census taker, of going door to door counting the number of inhabitants and recording their ages, their genders, their relationships, and then counting the number of rooms in their homes, even...

Nissan and Tishrei are arguably the most well-known Hebrew months because of Pesach and Rosh ha-Shanah; others like Tish’a b-Av, the 9th of Av, are known by their date, like the 4th of July. As we begin the fourth book of the Torah — B-midbar / Numbers...

I signed up months ago to write this week’s d’var Torah. I remember thinking what a fun parasha this would be to share with you all. I love the discussion of the jubilee year and of the gifts made to the sanctuary, and of the idealism that closes...

The religious philosopher Mircea Eliade speaks about religion as attempting to transform the chaos in our world into the cosmos. Essentially, he says that we take that which is unknown — that which can be different and scary — and try to make it known. We...

We must have become numb to gun violence. Hardly a day goes by without another mass shooting in a school, shopping center, place of worship or public square. We don’t even know what qualifies as a mass shooting these days. Deaths attributable...

We marked Yom HaShoa, Holocaust Memorial Day, on April 17-18. I don’t remember the details of the story, but I do remember some of the names. He was a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto. We met him on sabbatical to Israel, mid-’90s. I was studying music...

What moment was the G.O.A.T. in Jewish history? We often focus on our “lachrymose history,” tallying up tragedies, expulsions, destructions, and slaughters. It might be harder to come up with good moments. There is a certain intense relief and...

Have you ever opened a book that was so technical and so outside your realm of understanding that you found it difficult to get through? Like the words were all in English, but you were reading without understanding a thing?  For many people, this perfectly...

These 22nd and 23rd sections of our annual cycle of Torah readings (Vayakhei-Pekudei) opens as the Israelites are commanded to observe the Shabbat. Moses continues his acquisition of donations from the people to continue the construction and...