Moses’ Stammering Voice: A Jewish Paradigm for Disability
I wanted to begin by offering the D’var Torah I shared this past Friday night—something I offer every week at our musical Friday night Shabbat services from 6-7:15 followed by dinner in our social hall. This past week it was in the context of our participation in Jewish Disability Awareness & Inclusion Month (JDAIM), a […]
Building the Mishkan: Ongoing Efforts to Strengthen and Grow Our Community
Continuing the theme of my past Kesher articles, our ongoing efforts, as this headline says, to strengthen and grow this community, I wanted to share updates on our latests priorities and efforts to address them: *** As I’ve suggested in the past, I look to use the Kesher article space as an opportunity to reflect […]
Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat of Remembrance: Reflections on a Challenging New Year in Israel
This Shabbat is a special Shabbat known as Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat of memory. Now, that can encompass many features of Jewish, and human, existence, but Shabbat Zachor, at least on the face of it, refers to a very specific, and somewhat challenging, memory. It comes from a few verses in the Book of Devarim, the Book of […]
Solace for the Eagles Fans
With all the challenges in the world it may seem frivolous to open up my weekly D’var Torah with a missive about the Philadelphia Eagles, but, if the Inquirer’s front page headlines are any indication, that is where our community members’ hearts are. Tuesday’s headline was “Philly’s Super Sadness: In a bummed-out city Eagles fans […]
What Covenant Can Mean To Us • Boundaries, People!
I want to share the D’var Torah I delivered this past Friday night on the week’s parashah, on the eve of our student Alex Howe’s Bar mitzvah: I was drawn to a very specific part of this week’s parashah, this week’s Torah portion. Perhaps you’ll be able to sense why. First a couple of verses […]