Dear friends, Last Shabbat was called Shabbat Chazon, so named for the fearful Haftarah that accompanies the Shabbat before Tishah B’Av – the Ninth of Av, the saddest day on the Hebrew calendar on which we mourn the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and many other moments of anguish in our People’s history. On Continue Reading »
Dear friends, All of us hope to make an impact while we are here. The scope of one’s aspirations certainly differs from person to person–not everyone wants to change the whole world or become a great leader, but at the same time I imagine none of us is hoping for a poorly attended funeral when Continue Reading »
Dear friends, This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Sh’lach, is famous for many reasons, including the paragraph at the conclusion of the Torah portion enjoining us to wear garments with fringes on their corners–a paragraph that has become part of our liturgy as the third paragraph of the ‘V’ahavta.’ We are enjoined in this paragraph to Continue Reading »
Dear friends, Tonight at TBE we will celebrate our LGBTQ+ community at Shabbat services. We have entered into Pride Month, and this Pride Shabbat will feature the beautiful and joyful participation of congregants who have become a part of our newly formed Love Is Love Initiative (LILI). One of our chief focuses this year has Continue Reading »
Dear friends, Throughout the year, as we have focused on making Temple Beth-El a source of spiritual wellness and mental health self-care, we have offered healing services on the fifth Friday of the four months each year that contain five Fridays. This Friday is the fifth Friday of May, and our Shabbat services will again Continue Reading »
Dear friends, Tonight, as we begin again the fourth book of the Torah, Bamidbar (Numbers), we also are celebrating our Israel Shabbat. We’ll have a special dinner beforehand, and a service full of Israeli melodies and messages about our relationship with the world’s only Jewish State. Our Israel Shabbat will focus on our relationship with Continue Reading »
Dear friends, We are moving out of the Book of Leviticus/Vayikra after this Shabbat, and the third book of the Torah finishes in a quite heavy-handed way. Our double portions of Behar and Bechukotai contain one of the most straightforward expressions of what is at stake regarding our observance of mitzvot. Follow the mitzvot, and Continue Reading »
Dear friends, In our parashah this week, we hear the narrative of the Blasphemer who provokes a fight and ultimately curses God’s name. His name is not given, but his lineage is: “his mother’s name was Shlomit, daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan.” (Lev. 24:11) This lineage is a curious one, and his Continue Reading »
Dear friends, Our double portion this Shabbat contains the “Holiness Code,” a small treatise of Jewish ethics embedded at the very heart of the Torah–Leviticus 19, the middle chapter of the middle book. In this most important of ethical texts in Jewish tradition, which begins with the injunction “Kedoshim tih’yu ki kadosh Ani Adonai Eloheichem,” Continue Reading »
Dear friends, We are deep into the Book of Leviticus right now, learning lots about the Priests and the many and varied rituals they oversaw for our ancient ancestors. This week’s parashah, Tazria-Metzora, highlights perhaps the most poignant of those rituals, in which the Priest was responsible for checking up on anyone who contracted the Continue Reading »