Being Gentle with Our Inner Rebels
This past Shabbat we studied Parashat Korach, the Torah portion known as Korach, the eponymous Israelite who features prominently in the parshah’s opening narrative. Korach is notorious in Jewish tradition, standing in for every impertinent demagogue to follow. The parshah begins with Korach “betaking himself… to rise up against Moses, together with two hundred and fifty […]
Summing Up the Torah of Our B’nei Mitzvah
Each of the past two weeks we held meaningful, dynamic Bar Mitzvah services, first, two weeks ago on May 29, led by Jared Eizen, and then, last week on June 4, led by Ezra Goldenberg. Jared’s parashah was called Beha’alotekha, from the Book of Devarim (Numbers). Beha’alotkha literally means, “in your raising up,” referring to the instructions God gives the […]
Note About Israel and Sunday’s Town Hall
What a tragic and disconcerting week it’s been in Israel, a place so deeply held in so many of our hearts. Not only are bombs and rockets flying back and forth, an all-too-familiar experience for residents of Israel and Gaza, but neighborhoods are being torn asunder—mob violence in Israel among Jews and Arabs is erupting, a […]
A Powerful Teaching on the Earth from Our Bat Mitzvah
This past Shabbat we celebrated the Bat Mitzvah of Stella Wolson. Stella’s parashah (portion) was a double portion called Behar-Behukotai, the culminating portion of the third book of Torah, the Book of Vaykira, or, Leviticus. Stella’s parashah begins with, from our contemporary perspective, a radical set of land use laws. Now, lest you be concerned that Stella […]
The Sacredness of Communal Cohesion
This past Shabbat, our weekly Torah reading landed us in the penultimate parashah (portion) of the book of Vayikra (Leviticus) where we encounter a priestly articulation of the rhythms of the Jewish year: each biblical Jewish holiday—from Passover, to Shavuot, to the High Holidays and Sukkot—is spelled out, along with its associated rituals and tabernacle offerings—from the shofar on […]