As I was preparing to write this message, I read a disturbing news article. Barbara Surk and John Heilprin of The Associated Press reported that the U.N. Commission on Refugees had announced that the number of men, women and children displaced from their...
Parashat Sh’lach L’cha records Moses’ sending of scouts to check out the Promised Land and the Israelite response. Ten of the 12 scouts recommend to not advance, and they persuade the people. That response is regarded as faithlessness and is one...
“And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Kushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Kushite woman. 2. And they said, ‘Has the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Has he not spoken also by us?’ And the Lord heard it.”...
I like to think of the Jewish people as ninjas. Hollywood has demonstrated to us again and again that ninjas function according to the fundamental principle of what has been coined the “Inverse Ninja Law.” Put quite simply, the Inverse Ninja Law...
Two May 4 events opportunities to unite in commitment to ‘transformation of a broken world’“And from the day on which you bring the sheaf (Omer) offering, from the morrow of the rest day, you shall count for yourselves seven weeks. They must be...
Last week, I read an article online that left me feeling horribly guilty and upset with myself. It made me feel that not only was everything I do as a parent completely wrong, but also I was scarring my children for life. The next day, clearly not...
Four times the Torah instructs us to tell our children of the Exodus from Egypt. The Torah reads, “And you shall tell your child on that day...” The rabbis inferred from this repetition that there are four different kinds of children — the wise,...
The opening section of this week’s parashah, Acharei Mot, is especially familiar because it is also read publicly on Yom ha-Kippurim. The most memorable section is the “scapegoat” upon which Israel’s sins were transferred and sent out into the...
Are you pure?You were born pure. The traditional morning prayers contain the following blessing, which even in the Recon-structionist siddur “Kol Haneshamah” (Reconstructionists generally eschew supernaturalism), begins, “My God, the soul which...
By Rabbi James Stone Goodman
• Published March 26, 2014
Try to imagine an ancestor to whom one of the great mysteries (among many) was birth. It’s not too great a stretch, especially if you’ve had a child. Great mystery and wonder and delight and fear and awe all bound up together even for us moderns....
There is something really comforting about tradition, about doing things that connect us to our personal and collective past. For some of us, this means that every year, on certain holidays, we cook favorite family recipes that we have eaten since childhood. ...
Rabbi Roxanne J.S. Shapiro
• Published March 12, 2014
This week’s Torah portion, Tzav, details elaborate instructions for the ritual of sacrifice and the description of the actual ordination of Aaron and his sons (These directions were given in Exodus, but now carried out). If one can make it through the...
