Seventy-five years ago this past Wednesday David Ben Gurion stood up in Independence Hall in Tel Aviv and announced to the world on live radio: “WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE’S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND OF…
Torah Thoughts – Tazria-Metzorah – Leviticus.12.1-15.33 – “Let This Not Be the Last of Us”
Cordeyceps is the fungus that infects humans in HBO’s “The Last of Us” that turns them into zombies. In the television series based on a hit video game, global warming enables this real fungus that causes ants to dig their…
Torah Thoughts – Shmini – Leviticus.9.1-11.47 – “Who Knows 8? I Know 8”
For those of you, who attended our first ever joint second night Passover Seder with Temple Beth Zion, you know that eight is the day of the Brit Mila. Rabbi Brent held up two fingers to look like scissors and…
Torah Thoughts – Passover – “The Burning Bush is a Blackberry Bush”
I wrote the poem. And then I rewrote it and made it worse. I thought time would heal it. Time passed. I did research: Exodus, midrash, my mother. I rewrote the poem. I ate fistfuls of soft berries. Navy lips.…
Torah Thoughts – Tzav – Leviticus.6.1-8.36 – “Keeping the Flame Going”
This week’s Torah portion, Tzav, begins with an impossible proposition – a flame that no matter the situation is never allowed to go out. The Eternal Flame or Ner Tamid the Torah speaks about must be robust enough to withstand…
Torah Thoughts – Vayikra – Leviticus 1:1-5:26 – “The Four Questions of Leviticus”
On Sunday, I had an opportunity to hear the Kindergarten through Second Grade students sing the Four Questions. The Mah Nishtanah is one of my favorite customs of the Passover Seder. Listening to the youngest members of our families provoke…
Torah Thoughts Vayakhel-Pekudei – Exodus 35:1-40:38 – “An Ode to the Purim Spielers”
Building the Tabernacle – an action we complete in this week’s double portion Vayakhel-Pekudei – is one of the holiest acts recorded in the Torah. Watching the Israelites gather from far and wide to complete this traveling sanctuary is as…
Torah Thoughts – Ki Tisa – Exodus 30:11-34:35 – “There is a Cry of War in the Camp”
When Moses makes his journey down Mount Sinai in this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tisa, after his forty-day communion with God, he is confused by the sounds that he hears coming from the Israelite camp. “It is not the sound…
Torah Thoughts – Tetzaveh – Exodus.27.20-30.10 – “Why Stories Matter”
This Shabbat, in addition to reading Parshat Tetzaveh from the book of Exodus, we read from a section of Deuteronomy (25:17-19) in honor of the upcoming holiday of Purim. The Shabbat is called Shabbat Zachor, or the Shabbat of memory,…
Torah Thoughts – Terumah Exodus.25.1-27.19 – What a Heart Inspired Can Do
(Also featured in the Buffalo Jewish Federation’s Jewish Thought of the Week) Last week, over 20 of Buffalo’s most dynamic Civic Leaders met with Talya Levanon, the director of the Israel Trauma Coalition, at a quiet restaurant in the Yemin…