It was Tuesday, Sept. 23, 1997, when I received the call from my father that my beloved mother had finally succumbed to her metastatic lung cancer. At our congregation in Chattanooga, Tenn., I was deeply involved in preparations for the High Holy Days,...

Over the past many months, we have been on a journey together. We transitioned from the month of Shevat to Adar, changing our outlook to one of happiness and rejoicing as we prepared for the celebration of Purim. As we say, “mi she’nichnas Adar marbim...

It starts with a command: Tzav. Same root as mitzvah. Here, though, there is an extra urgency. The voice of the Talmud came to me in my morning meditation. Extra urgency, Tzav, hurry! Do this thing.What thing? Lift up the ashes, thus says your Torah....

In the Middle Ages, salt was so expensive it was sometimes referred to as white gold.Perhaps, then, it is not so surprising that as the Book of Leviticus opens to describe for us the sacrifices that the Israelites are to bring to God now that the Tabernacle...

How do you spin a goat?  What would it even mean to “spin a goat?”  Why would one want to spin a goat?  Yet in describing all the work that the Israelites did to build the tabernacle, the Torah says, “All the women whose hearts inspired them...

Ki Tisa begins when you lift the head of the B’nei Yisrael. To an ancient listener, “lifting the head” signified a census. This one indicated who would contribute toward building the Tent of Meeting, where the Divine Presence would rest in the midst...

You shall make a frontlet of pure gold and engrave on it the seal inscription: Holy to the Eternal. Suspend it on a cord of blue, so that it may remain on the headdress; it shall remain on the front of the headdress. It shall be on Aaron’s forehead....

Let them make me a holy place, and I will dwell among them. According to all that I show you – the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furnishings – so you shall you make it.  — Exodus 25:8-9The Book of Exodus begins with the...

My ancestors were wanderers. Abraham left his homeland and all that he knew in exchange for the promise of greatness and blessing for our people. Generations later a severe drought in Canaan led Jacob and his household to journey to Egypt. The Torah...

“What’s in a name?That which we call a rose,By any other name would smell as sweet.”— William Shakespeare, “Romeo & Juliet”As is the case with all the books of our Holy Torah, the second book of Scripture, Sefer Shmot in Hebrew, derives...

The whole Torah is about journey. The journeys of Genesis bring the Israelites into Egypt as an honored people who become enslaved. The Book of Exodus, called Shemot (Names), narrates the journey of a new collective of slaves into a people called Israel. The...