TEMPLE TALK | OCTOBER 27
11/02/2023 09:13:17 AM
It’s been nearly 3 weeks since we woke up on Shabbat morning to news of the unconscionable atrocities and brutalities that Hamas terrorists perpetrated upon our people on Shabbat Simchat Torah. Three weeks of anger and sadness and tears and loneliness as so many of us lay awake night after night waiting for news, and not knowing what to do or where to turn.
Over these past three weeks, I have found myself...Read more...
D'VAR TORAH | OCTOBER 27
10/27/2023 10:29:48 AM
In this week’s Torah portion, Lech L'cha, God calls Avram (later Abraham) to go forth from everything he has ever known, to a land that God will show him. This call was a great leap of faith into the unknown, and it is also the beginning of our story as the Jewish people. We have been on this journey ever since, which has involved not just physical journeys but also spiritual journeys. The spiritual journeys often involved delving into the...Read more...
TEMPLE TALK | OCTOBER 20
10/26/2023 09:04:42 AM
What does it mean to be witness to unfathomable tragedy and have no real means to comprehend it or combat it? Why is it that my heart is more broken for one set of parents or orphans than for another? Is there a limit to how much we can feel? Is our capacity for empathy and sympathy finite?
I will be honest; it feels like the most real and logical thing. I believe that one can only absorb so much tragedy. We must...Read more...
D'VAR TORAH | OCTOBER 20, 2023
10/20/2023 12:07:26 PM
We love to tell the story of parashat Noach to our children, and what’s not to love? There are cute animals. There is a 40-day cruise. There is a rainbow at the end of it all. But truth be told, at the end of it all, it is a deeply challenging story. It begins with God deciding to start all over by wiping out humanity, except for Noah and his family. God chose Noah because he was “an ish tzadik tamid hayah b’dorotav, he was a righteous...Read more...
Shabbat WELCOME | OCTOBER 13
10/15/2023 09:51:00 AM
Shabbat Shalom. One of my rabbis always said that Shabbat comes when we need it most. And in this moment, I need Shabbat, and I imagine you do too.
This past week has been an emotional rollercoaster for so many of us, as we sit with our despair and our collective pain. Because whether or not we know someone personally in Israel, we are all family, connected as Klal Yisrael, the community of Israel. And that means that if one of...Read more...