The day before we completed the counting of the 49 days of the Omer, we escorted Arthur Levin — Aaron ben Enoch z”l — on his last journey. This occurred just before Shavuot — the holiday of receiving the Torah. In various places throughout the text, the Talmud claims that in studying Torah — beginning [...]
“The days of our years is seventy years, and when in vigor, eighty years; most of them are but travail and vanity. They pass by speedily, and we are gone.” Psalm 90:10 is a song marked equally by fear and trust, of terrible death and tender friendliness. Commentators have noted that the reference to “seventy years” is usually associated [...]
When we sit around the Passover table every year, we don’t normally ask ourselves whether this is the shank bone of a sheep or of a goat. According to the Torah, before the Israelites left Egypt, God commanded, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; you shall take it from [...]
In the past year, I’ve been meeting with the Judaism and Art group, comprised of working artists from our congregation, to discuss artistic expression related to Judaic concepts. On Sunday, March 25, we will mount an exhibit of each member’s contribution. The artists will speak briefly about their works and the themes they explored. Painfully [...]
It is the time of year that we read about the Ten Plagues and the eventual liberation of the children of Israel from Egypt. Their thrust into the desert was the moment they became a people — a people of immigrants. For the rest of the Torah, they will be roaming the wilderness. So it’s not surprising that [...]
By its name, Jerusalem is a city of peace (“they shall regard peace”), and for centuries the object of hope for the Jewish people. The yearning to return to Jerusalem was not simply to return home, but to return to God, with Jerusalem acting as the bridge between earth and heaven. The Talmud (Taanit 5a) brings a midrash [...]
Dear members and friends, During the last three weeks, I have been enjoying an incredible trip around the beautiful United States. Visiting the breathtakingly massive rock formations within many of our national parks always reminds me of our fleeting existence. One of the most beautiful — and one hard to remain indifferent to — is the [...]
Dear Members and Friends, It was delightful seeing many of you during the High Holiday season. I hope you are beginning the new year with feelings of renewal, and that you are inspired to begin another year of individual and communal growth. As we were getting ready to begin the High Holidays, our congregation received a [...]
Last Shabbat, the Orient Congregational Church hosted an interfaith panel discussion in which I participated with Dr. Don Russo and Sheikh Ghassan Manasra. It was a unique opportunity to share a stage with Christian and Muslim colleagues for an interfaith dialogue. The main purpose of the discussion was to present our respective views of sharing [...]
The solar eclipse we witnessed to various degrees this week brought many Americans together and looking up to heaven. In a time when it seems we are drifting to greater social and political polarization, it was inspiring for me to see everyone having a common cause. For such a rare occasion, I drove with friends [...]
