Category: Rabbi’s Dvrei Torah

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…

This is our last Shabbat of the year, just before Rosh haShana.  Our weekly Torah portion, Nitzavim, is a great help in preparing us for the holidays to come. In fact, the Reform and Reconstructionist High Holiday prayerbooks include a section of this week’s Torah portion as an alternative Torah reading for Yom Kippur Day. Heeding its…

This is a very important time of year for Jewish communities everywhere, and for our community as well. Many of you have already renewed your Temple Sinai membership for the new year. Some of you are becoming members again after a hiatus from the synagogue. And we are welcoming a few new members to our…

This week’s Torah portion, Eikev, records another wonderful speech by Moses to the People of Israel. “What it all boils down to is this,” Moses seems to say as he tries – yet again – to explain the covenant and the way of life expected of the nation now living free and about to enter in its…

This week’s Torah portion, V’etchanan, includes some Hebrew words that, if a person in their life utters any Hebrew words at all, these words are probably among them: Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad… “Hear O’Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai is One.” I’m curious what these words – so familiar – really mean to us? From…

Shalom Chaverim! Oftentimes the simplest things are the best. Sometimes they are the most important, too. Take for example this week’s Torah portion which begins the last of the five books of the Torah. The world calls this book “Deuteronomy” which we can sort of understand from its Latin and Greek roots: deuteros meaning “second” (as in…

Shalom Chaverim! Do you like mysteries? Have a look at the Hebrew below from the start of Numbers chapter 33 and notice the order of the underlined words in the second verse. This is from the start of the second of this week’s double Torah portion, Mattot-Massei: אֵ֜לֶּה מַסְעֵ֣י בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָצְא֛וּ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם לְצִבְאֹתָ֑ם בְּיַד־מֹשֶׁ֖ה וְאַהֲרֹֽן׃ וַיִּכְתֹּ֨ב מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶת־מוֹצָאֵיהֶ֛ם…

Though it probably is not your favorite thing to do, I nevertheless ask you to take a moment or two to try to recall something about Yom Kippur: Several times throughout the services of Yom Kippur, we recite the vidui, the “confession”. You know the one, where we strike our hearts accompanied by a plaintive…

I am eager for the approach of sunset today and the start of our annual Shabbat-on-the-Beach services. What I most love about the Jewish experience of life I find to be present in abundance when folks gather together at a beach to greet Shabbat as a community: The creating of a spirit of Jewish culture…