Salt is perhaps the most important commodity in the world. It provides taste to our food, keeps our roads safe, and generally makes life better. And, while oil may be in short supply, the land of Israel is filled with…
Torah Thoughts Lech Lecha
What do you do with a group of teenagers to really show them what life was like prior to Abraham and Sarah? Well you show them pictures of idols and you have them build one. So there we were, myself…
Torah Thoughts Noah 5778
This week social media was flooded with people posting the simple words, “me too.” Me too, as in I also was a victim of sexual harassment or assault. To see the Facebook page fill with this difficult and painful assertion…
Torah Thoughts Bereishit 5778
Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s excellent new book “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry,” begins with the words: “In the beginning, nearly fourteen billion years ago, all the space and all the matter and all the energy of the known universe was…
Torah Thoughts Sukkot 5778
This past Monday, my wife, Ashirah, was teaching the 2-year-old class at Pals/Kadimah pre-school. They were joyously painting a box in the shape of a sukkah. Each of the children had a paintbrush in hand and a serious face as…
Torah Thoughts Yom Kippur 5778
On this Yom Kippur open yourself up to a 360 degree life. See you at CSS, Rabbi Alex I Finally Saw the Sky Today I finally saw the sky today. How could it be missed? With…
Torah Thoughts – Ha’azinu
In honor of one of the oldest poems in Jewish tradition that appears in this week’s Torah portion Ha’azinu, here is a poem I wrote for the New Year. A Shanah Tovah U’Metukah, Rabbi Alex Do…
Torah Thoughts Netzavim – Vayalech
In the early 1960s, over fifteen hundred Torah scrolls from the Czech Republic were brought to safety from where they had been desecrated by the Nazis. Thousands and thousands other Torahs were burned throughout Europe in that terrible period…
Torah Thoughts – Ki Tavo 5777
Here’s a video of this week’s Torah Thoughts read by the Rabbi if you’d prefer not to read it: This week is the week we start to say goodbye to summer fruit. Alas, all the yummy blueberries, strawberries, peaches, and…
Torah Thoughts – Ki Tetzei
There is an open-ended question every time one affixes a mezuzah to a door – should it face in or out? Technically, a mezuzah is affixed on the right doorpost, approximately, at the bottom of the top third of the…