One of my favorite rituals before Friday night services is lighting our sanctuary menorah. Bruce Corris and I have a little contest about who can light it using only one match. It feels like we are participating in a…
Torah Thoughts Naso (Bamidbar 4:21-7:89)
Torah Thoughts Naso (Bamidbar 4:21-7:89) Thank God for My Seventh Grade Bible Teacher When my seventh grade bible teacher asked me to memorize fifteen words in Biblical Hebrew, I was not happy to say the least. I felt no connection…
Torah Thoughts – Navigating The Steps of Our Spiritual Home
Torah Thoughts – Behar-Behukotai
Ah, the great outdoors. This is the time when our weather starts to shift from snowy Buffalo, to the best place to live on earth. I had a chance to spend the beginning of this week in the Delaware…
Torah Thoughts Emor 5778
Torah Thoughts Emor 5778 This week’s Torah portion, Emor, begins with a dead body. No it is not a murder mystery. Rather it is there for a different reason – to teach the priests about what they should do when…
Torah Thoughts Acharei Mot 5778
Can you smell the Torah? Perhaps, at some point you have had a chance to hold a Torah, or to kiss a Torah, or, to read and bless a Torah, but have you ever smelled a Torah? Now, why, Rabbi…
Torah Thoughts Tazria Metzorah 5778
There is no harsher word in Biblical Hebrew then Karet. It means alternatively – cut off, excommunicated, and executed. Here in Leviticus it can be leveled at any time. You break the Sabbath – Karet. You eat bread on Passover…
Torah Thoughts Shmini 5778
Leviticus Should Come with a Warning It gets me every time. After all the sacrifices – one after another, week after week – lies three verses that will literally tear your heart out. Here, in Parashat Shmini, almost halfway through…
Torah Thoughts Passover 2 5778
The Great Passover Debate What do peanuts, popcorn, and rice have in common? They are all part of the great Passover machlochet or debate. Some rabbi, at some point, likely living in medieval France, ruled that legumes including those…
Torah Thoughts Passover 5778
Torah Thoughts Passover 5778 I would like to begin with an apology. Over the last few weeks, I, and others in the Jewish community, have been misrepresenting the Hebrew word Dayenu. Taken from the title of the song made…