Rabbi’s Torah Thoughts

The summer after eleventh grade, I worked at Camp Ramah in the Poconos. The camp was affiliated with the Conservative movement, but I considered myself Orthodox at the time. This often posed challenges for me over the course of the…

When the siren sounds in Israel at 11 am on Yom Hazikaron, everything stops.  Nary a household is without loss.  Nary a household is without pain.  The memories of loved ones struck down in faraway wars and recent battles flash…

As a student of Columbia University in the early 90s, I lived in the aftermath of the civil unrest of the late 60s.  Tall gates stood guard each time you entered or exited the long city campus.  While they remained…

When we think of Passover, we focus on the Seder meal and all its intricacies and delights.  Our ancestors, on the other hand, focused on one thing and one thing only – the Paschal lamb.  This key annual tradition represented…

At the “Let’s Talk About Israel” Conference this past Sunday at the Buffalo Marriott, the keynote speaker, Shalom Orzach, spoke among other things, about Passover.  “This is a holiday” – and I paraphrase – “where we sit around a table,…

This Shabbat, we will celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of Adam Kopf.  In addition to sending out a big Mazel Tov to Adam, his parents Jennifer and Robert and older sister Natalie, we also commend him for taking on such a…

Biblically speaking, 8 (Shemonah) is one of the most important of all Jewish numbers.  In addition to being the number of days when a circumcision Brit Milah is performed, it is at the heart of the Hanukkah celebration with its…

Another Purim has come and gone at Shir Shalom.  Kudos to Cantor Frank and Mark Knightenger, and the entire cast and crew of “The Megillah According to Barbie”!  To Julia and Eileen for the fantastic sets, and for everyone who…

This past week, I drove down to Philadelphia to join colleagues in the Reform movement at our annual convention.  In preparing to leave on any journey, I find I am most nervous in the hours before I leave.  This is…

For Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger and Noar A’wad, the question of who their neighbors were was confusing and upsetting. Were their neighbors only the Israeli settler or Palestinian Arab communities they respectively lived amongst in the West Bank or were they…