Category: Rabbi’s Dvrei Torah

I’m sure you are all as deeply unsettled as I am by the shocking rise of antisemitism across the U.S. and around the world, on college campuses, and expressed as an almost normative outlook by certain repulsive cultural and political figures. I think it was Rabbi Leo Baeck who noted that we Jews view the…

I’m the father of three boys, two of whom are the age of military service. Their many good childhood friends, cousins, and children of some of my own closest friends are all currently serving in the IDF. This drasha written decades ago by my teacher Rabbi Shmuel Avidor haCohen, z”l goes straight to my heart today as…

The discussion in our weekly Torah study class on Monday nights is lively. For me personally, it almost always produces some profound insight that I treasure and think about the rest of the week, if not longer. For this week’s parasha, Veyetzei, we talked about the famous angels going up and down the ladder in Jacob’s dream.…

I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving yesterday! Let’s acknowledge the important symbolism of all those leftovers in the fridge that need to be eaten, even if your tummy remains full from yesterday: Giving thanks is never really over and done with. If you live another day there is always more to be grateful for. Today, as…

It seems odd that our Torah portion this week is entitled Chayei Sarah, “the life of Sarah” when it immediately announces the death of Sarah and recounts nothing of her life! As always though, the Torah has a purpose and a lesson. Our job is to “turn it and turn it because all is found within it” (Pirkei Avot…

Sen-No Rikyu was a 16th century Japanese sage, the greatest master in the art of hosting guests in the Tea House that ever lived. A disciple once asked him: “What precisely are the things that must be kept in mind at a tea gathering?” Rikyu answered: “Make a delicious bowl of tea; Lay the charcoal…

This Shabbat is the start of a new year for our weekly reading of the parashat hashavua – the weekly Torah reading. Among many other things, the weekly parasha is a unique – perhaps Divine – marker of time. Our lives and the events of our week so often seem somehow to connect to, reference as allusion, or otherwise assume some…

These last couple of days during our Sukkot holiday, the words of our daily evening prayer have echoed in my head: “ufros aleinu Sukkat shlomecha, God, please spread over us the “Sukkah”, the shelter, of your peace.” The prayer expresses a feeling and a need that I think we all share. There is rarely a day…

The Soulful Architecture of the Sukkah “The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own, we have no soul of our own civilization.”— Frank Lloyd Wright I don’t know if Frank Lloyd Wright ever sat for a meal in a sukkah. If I could, I’d invite him along with the ushpizin*, just to see what…

Shabbat shalom for this “Shabbat Shuva”! One of the most intriguing – and hopeful – aspects of the High Holiday season is the designation of Rosh HaShana as “Hayom Harat Olam”, the day on which the world was called into being, the day on which it was conceived. Given the heavier themes of the holidays to…