Lingering with the Divine
This past Shabbat we studied Parashat Pinchas (the Torah portion known as “Pinchas,” named after a religious zealot who practices a cruel form of vigilante justice early in the portion). Parashat Pinchas includes the prescribed musaf offering associated with the different holidays, including Shabbat, that are to make up the rhythm of the Jewish year. Musaf means “additional” and it refers to […]
Understanding Lonlieness Through The Prayers of Kabbalat Shabbat
I was honored to be invited to offer a teaching for My Jewish Learning, the web’s leading pluralistic, nondenominational Jewish educational resource, and I did so on Divine Loneliness and Kabbalat Shabbat, a reflection on the idea that God, too, might be lonely, yearning for connection, and how Kabbalat Shabbat might be a salve for […]
I Before Thou?
This past week’s Torah portion, Balak, finds the Israelites continuing their wilderness journey, circuitously making their way to the Promised Land. (And doesn’t it mirror life’s wanderings, finding periods in our lives as something of a wilderness as we make our way towards what we imagine to be a land of milk and honey?) The journeys lead […]
What’s So Special About Aaron?
This past week was Parashat Chukat, the Torah portion from the Book of Be’midbar (known in English as the Book of Numbers, but which literally translates to “In the Wilderness”), in which, as part of the prolonged wanderings in the wilderness, Aaron, the High Priest and elder brother of Moses, dies. “[When] the whole community knew that Aaron had breathed […]
Being Grateful for Being In Service
This past week’s parashah (torah portion) Korah is famous for the rebellion that takes place in its opening verses: Korah is the name of a dissatisfied Levite tribesman who feels that too much power has accrued in the hands of Moses and Aaron, and therefore seeks more power for himself. (I discussed it extensively in my Yom Kippur sermon this year.) […]