TEMPLE TALK | MARCH 24 & 25
03/30/2023 08:21:01 AM
This week’s Parsha is Vayikra. It is the first parsha of the book of Leviticus (Vayikra). Fun fact about this parsha: Vayikra is the longest portion in the Torah in terms of word count! So, I’m not surprised that we don’t have a bar/bat mitzvah this week! However we do have a Torah service tomorrow morning at 10:30 am, please come.
In addition to being long, Vayikra is also somewhat unpleasant and challenging to our modern...Read more...
TEMPLE TALK | MARCH 10
03/16/2023 12:38:24 PM
Four years ago I took a small group of congregants on a trip to Israel. We had a four-session class before the trip to give them some background and to go over the itinerary. I would review some of the history of Israel and then would generally end with “It’s complicated.” A congregant told me, “Rabbi, you keep saying it is complicated. How complicated could it be?” When we were in Israel and traveling up to Jerusalem, as the guide...Read more...
TEMPLE TALK | FEBRUARY 24
03/02/2023 10:33:27 AM
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about life lessons my mom taught me as I was growing up. In my family, we refer to these pearls of wisdom half-lovingly, half-sarcastically as “Motherly Advice.” I may have shared some of them with you before. But they’re worthy of repeating.
They range from small things like “your sleeve is not a napkin” to somewhat larger things like how we process and encounter...Read more...
TEMPLE TALK | FEBRUARY 10 & 11
02/16/2023 03:49:52 PM
Years ago, I saw a movie with Paul Newman that I really enjoyed. When I read a review of the movie later, the reviewer commented that not only did Newman make his acting look effortless, but also that he did something even more important for the film; his work inspired everyone else to improve their acting as well.
We see this same idea in sports; one of the ways to improve is to work with or compete against someone who...Read more...
TEMPLE TALK | FEBRUARY 3 (REFUGEE SHABBAT)
02/09/2023 09:11:22 AM
We are observing Refugee Shabbat tonight, a project of HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. If your family came to the United States around the time that mine did, they were probably helped by HIAS. They were founded in 1902, to help welcome Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe. They are the oldest organization assisting refugees and have broadened their mission over the years from assisting specifically Jewish refugees to...Read more...