Category: Rabbi’s Dvrei Torah

Long ago, the Biblical poet Kohelet stared life in the eyes and declared at the start of his book: הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים הַכֹּל הָבֶל Haveil havalim, ha-col havel… Futility of futilities, all is futile Kohelet was an existentialist before existentialism. Encouraging, isn’t he?! You could also translate it more spiritually and “Eastern” as “Emptiness of emptiness,…

Rabbi Michael and Torah from Sinai are both on vacation this week. Torah from Sinai will return on Friday, August 28th!

Shalom Chaverim, I’ve shared this before, but it seems appropriate these days: Do you think our local, national, and global politics can get “ugly”?! Check this out: Last week, Moses’ leadership was threatened by Korach’s rebellion. There were accusations on all sides of demagoguery, corruption, incompetence, megalomania… In the end, the earth opened up and…

The Festival of Shavuot begins Thursday evening and continues through this Shabbat. This holiday is one of the Shalosh Regalim, one of the three main pilgrimage festivals during which, in ancient times, our ancestors would walk up the mountains to Jerusalem. Shavuot comes at the end of the seven-times-seven (a “week of weeks”) cycle of…

It is customary to study a chapter of Pirke Avot – the Wisdom of our Fathers – each week during the weeks between Passover and Shavuot. Let’s do that for these remaining weeks. There are two shabbatot remaining before Shavuot, so let’s explore a teaching from chapter 2 this week. The Jewish calendar, fittingly, is…

I hope the blossoming trees and joyous bird songs are warming your heart at least as much as they indicate warmer (mostly!) spring weather. That we humans can sense the exuberant pulse of life’s energy at this season strongly and positively connects us with the natural world. Hopefully, at this season we feel more attuned…

The Shabbat before Passover – this Shabbat – is known as Shabbat HaGadol, “The Great Sabbath.” Among the reasons for this designation is that our redemption from slavery in Egypt began on this day: For the first time, we had to take some action to shape our destiny rather than merely watch events unfold. We…

One of the most beautiful of all the Jewish traditions is the blessing of the children on Friday nights. The tradition comes from this week’s Torah portion, Vayechi, when Jacob blesses his own children and grandchildren. Though I have written about this in past years, this year it feels especially important and relevant. The Torah…

The calendar new year and ‘New Year’s Eve’ are approaching next week. Due to this, the idea of opening a champaign bottle comes oddly to mind in describing the crucial event in this week’s Torah portion, Vayigash. Quite a lot of effort is involved in opening a bottle of champaign: The foil must be removed,…

Several times each day we all both receive and give pro forma greetings and wishes: “Good morning!” or after a sneeze “God bless you!” and the like. As kind and warm as these polite interactions are, I think it is rare that we take their meaning seriously. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, though, if our positive…