Rabbi’s Torah Thoughts

As a child I always hated packing up my sleeping bag.  It was big and fluffy and somehow had to be shoved into a bag so small it could barely carry crackers.  I would roll it and reroll it and…

In a recent post on “My Jewish Learning,” by Rabbi Sara Laufer about the Book of Numbers (Thanks Bob Kanner!) she describes a comic strip by Mari Andrew featuring “two identical drawings of a woman, holding a suitcase, staring at…

Fruit in Israel is different than the fruit we are used to in Western New York.  Instead of apples and oranges, there are thick, yellow pomelos that look from the outside like giant grapefruits, but inside are sweet and juicy. …

Synagogues of the past had clear hierarchies.  The wealthy and the powerful had assigned seats up front, everyone else were relegated to the back.  I felt this growing up, as our Jewish community in Philadelphia often made those who didn’t…

Holiness in Judaism is ephemeral – a wisp of a moment, fleeting, but full of love and life.  We find it around our Shabbat tables, glowing with the candles, singing with our High Holy Day choir.  No one can have…

I learned a new Yiddish expression this week – Guzente Tzurus or good or healthy troubles.  Not all troubles are equal, some, like the ones that arise from getting ready for happy occasions or in preparation to overcome adversity, are…

One of my favorite memories of our CSS Passover Second Night Seders, was when our youngest child, Noam, recited the “Mah Nishtanah” in front of the whole community.  He was three-years-old and we had been prepping him for weeks, but…

The brother of a friend from high school wanted to go into the film business.  He was especially fond of horror movies, showing off simple tricks to make special effects like they did in Hollywood.  Spaghetti, for example, when broken,…

My sister-in-law spent the holiday of Purim in a bomb shelter.  Her children, my niece and nephew, had been called up for reserve duty and were heading off to the Northern Front.  But despite the dire mood across Israel, she,…