Here we are in the Jewish calendar with no holidays. The month of Cheshvan that just ended is at times referred to as Mar Cheshvan, or Bitter Cheshvan, by virtue of the absence of any holidays.  It is precisely during this time period that we have the...

Inter-generationality is the major theme of this week’s Torah reading, Chayei Sarah.  The narrative begins with the death and burial of our matriarch, Sarah.  It then continues highlighting the marriage of Isaac and Rebeccah, the inheritors of the...

When was the last time you had guests?  It’s been so long since we’ve had anyone over that I can’t even remember. And when someone does come into our house, even for a moment, we all suddenly put on masks: We all cover our faces, our noses, our...

“The Eternal One said to Abram: Go forth from your native land…to the place that I will show you”. (Genesis 12:1)This Shabbat, we will once again read the well-known Parashat Hashavua of Lech-Lechah, which includes the Divine’s call to our ancestor...

My own religious experiences and work as a learner-educator, tend to nudge me towards seeing the Holy Blessed One less as a judge or parent and more as the Artful Holy Pedagogue. In that spirit I never cease to be gobsmacked by the radical and profound...

The natural desire to make meaning of our world caused human beings to develop hundreds of origin stories, each unique to the culture and people who created them.The Babylonian origin story describes a world that emerged out of utter chaos, with the gods...

I was blessed to grow up in an environment that took Jewish tradition seriously. Shabbat and festivals were welcomed with great anticipation and we felt a deep and palpable sense of the rhythms and cycles of living lives that were sanctified and sacred. No...

The mood swing from Yom Kippur to Sukkot is among the most dramatic of Jewish transitions. From sobriety to celebration, from awe-struck fear to total joy, from fasting to feasting, we re-engage with the world beyond the walls of synagogue, remembering...

So you got fat [Deut. 32:15], G*d would have suckled you with honey from a rock and oil from a flinty stone butter of cattle milk or sheep fat of lambs, but you became thick and you kicked. Of course, we will get fat if we eat like that. The honey alone...

“Hayom Harat Olam!” “Today is the birthday of the world!” We often hear or say these words during our services on Rosh Hashanah, particularly when we hear the sound of the shofar. “Happy birthday, world,” we say when we try to explain in...

As we find ourselves in the seventh month of the “new normal” of COVID-19 and near the beginning of the New Year 5781, one of the most popular catch phrases has become, “We’re all in this together.” This statement is intended to awaken within...

Devarim - Chapter 26: 1: When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, 2: You shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God...