This week’s double Torah portion, Vayak’heil-P’kudei, describes the completion of the Tabernacle, the very first sanctuary of the Jewish People. What I find most notable about the construction of this sacred space is how the resources were secured for the project. There was no mandatory participation, no tax levied to raise funds. Instead, the community Continue Reading »
A Message for Refugee Shabbat At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tisa, God commands Moses to take a census by having each person give a half-shekel coin. Instead of counting the people, which was taboo, they would determine the number of people by counting the coins. The money collected would be used Continue Reading »
As kids we loved Purim. Dressing up, playing carnival games, booing Haman, and watching adults being silly. It was all great fun. As adults, the frivolity of Purim is tempting. It awakens the innocence of childhood within us, and that can be a welcome thing, as long as one doesn’t actually read the Megillah. For Continue Reading »
This is Shabbat Zachor. The Sabbath of Remembrance. The Sabbath immediately before Purim. We are enjoined to read a special, additional Torah portion, from the Book of Deuteronomy (chapter 25, verses 17-19) which commands us to remember Amelek and the existential threat to the Israelites as they marched out of Egypt, especially threatening the weakest Continue Reading »
Here’s a question for you: Do you think of yourself as a religious or pious person? Does that term ‘religious’ make you cringe just a tiny bit? Does it sometimes feel as if being a religious person means you have to be Orthodox, a very observant Muslim, Sikh or Hindu? Or for some, the term Continue Reading »
In 2011, Adam Sutcliffe and Jonathan Karp published a collection of essays entitled Philosemitism in History. Notably, they chose to begin their introduction with this old Jewish joke: “Q: Which is preferable -the antisemite or the philosemite? A: The anti-Semite – at least he isn’t lying.” The cynicism expressed by this joke is biting but understandable, Continue Reading »
The story of the Israelites being freed from Egyptian bondage by God, with Moses as their leader is a story of redemption. The Israelites were saved by God’s power, and we became God’s people in the process, ultimately receiving the Torah at mount Sinai and joining in the covenant with God that binds us together Continue Reading »
I like to ask my students if they think their parents would ever lie to them. Of course not, they assure me. Well then, I ask, is it true that your parents were slaves in Egypt and that God liberated them with signs and wonders? Yet, every year at the Pesach seder your parents tell Continue Reading »
“And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened…” (Ex 7:22) This week’s parashah continues the story of the Exodus and the dramatic confrontation between God and Pharaoh. It is a story of pain and suffering that multiplies as the oppressor becomes the victim of his own designs. And the root of it all? The hardening of the heart. Continue Reading »
January 2021. Imagine for a moment that you are a visitor from another planet. You’ve somehow arrived in central New Jersey and are standing in, of all places, the Temple Beth-El parking lot, which is empty. There is a structure before you. Although you look around for indications that other beings are present, there are Continue Reading »
