Lies, lies, lies

Published on June 6, 2013

My daughter, a soon-to-graduate high school senior, was chosen by a teacher to participate in an event to teach the school a lesson about drunk driving. Before school one day, organizers would set up a scene with a crashed car and police tape. My daughter and the other chosen participants would gather in a room instead of attending first period, making them appear to be missing. It would then be announced that they had been killed in the crash.

Healing the broken – Parashat Tazria-Metzora (Leviticus 12:1-15:33)

By Rabbi Laura Geller
Published on April 10, 2013

Most people try really hard to avoid having their bar or bat mitzvah on the Shabbat when we read Tazria-Metzora. I know this not only because I am a rabbi, but because this was my bat mitzvah portion.

Willing to sacrifice

By Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky
Published on March 21, 2013

The mind of the midrashist drifts effortlessly over the face of the Tanakh as verses from the Torah conjure up similar verses and phrases from other sacred books. Thus, our parasha’s descriptions of the thanksgiving offerings and the free-will offerings call to mind a phrase found in Psalm 50: “The one who sacrifices a thanksgiving offering honors me.”

A divine call to action

By Rabbi Elazar Muskin
Published on March 14, 2013

Once, on a mission to Israel, we needed a minyan for a prayer service during the airplane flight. We were a total of six men in our group, so we began to scan the plane for the remaining four for the requisite 10 men.

Building Our Mishkan

By Rabbi Yonah Bookstein
Published on March 7, 2013

The ancient sages teach us that the Torah is exceedingly careful with language. No phrase is superfluous. Each word or letter is part of the intricate unfolding mysteries concentrated in the Torah.

God’s road rage

Published on February 27, 2013

What’s up with God?

Wearing your true self

Published on February 20, 2013

We are taught from a young age not to “judge a book by its cover” and we raise our children to look deeper than just at the clothes someone is wearing.

“Ayeka? Where are You?” -  A D’var Torah for Parashat Shoftim

By Rabbi John Rosove
Published on August 24, 2012

When your brother will be low

By Rabbi Lisa Edwards
Published on May 15, 2012

He flopped down on the couch in my study, looking pale, upset. “What is it?” I asked, imagining a bad diagnosis.

Lessons My Grandfather Taught Me

By Rabbi Elazar Muskin
Published on April 11, 2012

Every Passover, as I sit with my family at our seder, I inevitably think of my paternal grandfather, after whom I was named. I never met him. He died five years before I was born, and I was born on the anniversary of his burial. But from earliest childhood, I felt that my grandfather was present, teaching me the values that helped shape my life.

Make the Old New Again

Published on March 21, 2012

At the ripe age of 8, I learned the Peter Allen song “Everything Old Is New Again.” It may have been an unusual choice for an 8-year-old to crave hearing over and over. But for me, this song was synonymous with dance class, doing the soft shoe that landed me on stage for the annual spring recital: “Don’t throw the past away, you might need it some rainy day, dreams can come true again, when everything old is new again.”

Holy Sanctuaries or Golden Calves

Published on February 23, 2012

As human beings, can we know precisely what God wants from us? It might seem, from the beginning of this week’s parasha, that we can: “Bring Me gifts. You shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is willing. And these are the gifts you shall accept from them” (Exodus 25:2). God then offers a specific list of valuable things: precious metals and stones, rich textiles, animal skins, wood, oils and spices. At the end of the list of contributions, God says, “They will make me a sanctuary, so that I will dwell among them. Exactly how I show you ... so shall you make it” (Exodus 25:8-9). What follows is a template — in unparalleled detail — for building this tabernacle. Why such specificity and detail?

Déjà Vu, all over again

Published on January 11, 2012

It’s a new year and we are beginning a new book of the Torah — Exodus. Unfortunately, we are dealing with the same old problem. Anti-Semitism, the oldest hatred, rears its ugly head.

Unloading the emotional U-Haul

By Rabbi Lisa Edwards
Published on January 4, 2012

A funeral director once said, “In all the funerals I’ve attended, I have yet to see a hearse with a U-Haul trailer attached.” But while it’s true that “you can’t take it with you,”meaning material possessions, I’m not so sure about emotional possessions. How many of us have walked behind a casket where lay the body of a relative or friend with whom we were still talking? Or, wrenchingly, with whom we never had the conversation we meant to have?

Parashat Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1-17:27)

By Rabbi Laura Geller
Published on November 1, 2011

Last week’s Torah portion ends with a genealogy, a long list of names of who begot whom and how long they lived. It is one of many genealogies in the Torah. It used to be that when I encountered those lists, I tuned out; I found them boring. But then I read a book by Thomas Cahill called “The Gifts of the Jews” (Anchor, 1999).

Unique Capabilities: Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32)

By Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater
Published on October 26, 2011

There are places in the Torah where many of us moderns have a hard time relating to our ancestors and the societies in which they lived. Oppression of women, slavery, animal sacrifice, a God that intervenes and directs our lives in a forceful and immediate way, to name a few. This parasha, however, is not really one of these moments. In fact, as I read through Noach again and again this year, I couldn’t help but think how much hasn’t changed since those fateful days, in primordial time, when the first humans brought about the destruction of the Earth.

Back to School

By Rabbi Elazar Muskin
Published on August 31, 2011

With a new school year upon us, I found the following story, “What Teachers Make,” revealing.

From Pain to Peace

By Rabbi Anne Brener
Published on August 17, 2011

“Remember the long way that YHVH your God made you travel in the wilderness these past 40 years, that he might test you, by hardships, to learn what is in your hearts: whether you would keep his commandments or not” (Deuteronomy 8:2).

Listening More Than We Speak

By Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater
Published on August 10, 2011

Having just come off Tisha B’Av, not only do we focus on the parasha, Va’etchanan, but this is also Shabbat Nachamu, the healing Shabbat of Comfort, so named because we read the words of Isaiah, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God” (Isaiah 40:1).

Courage to Lead: Parashat Pinchas (Numbers 25:10-30:1)

By Rabbi Dov Fischer
Published on July 12, 2011

We ended last week’s parasha with the Jewish nation crying as quasi-leaders sinned publicly with Midianite women, who had come into our camp at the Moabites’ behest.

Real Spirituality: Parashat Chukat (Numbers 19:1-22:1)

By Rabbi Elazar Muskin
Published on June 28, 2011

Spirituality, kabbalah and meditation are buzzwords in today’s religious lexicon. But do they really describe religion?

Korach: The Spiritual Narcissist

By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
Published on June 24, 2011

Engraved Ideas

By Rabbi Elazar Muskin
Published on May 17, 2011

In 2008, the Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed written by Marisol Leon, a young woman who graduated from Yale in 2007 and returned to teach in the same public middle school she had attended:

Blasphemers No More

Published on May 3, 2011

My sister just touched down in Israel. I can feel her elation way over here in California. Time stood still; there was silence. The land and the woman were one. She had returned home.

Ears, Toes and Thumbs

By Rabbi Elazar Muskin
Published on April 5, 2011

Author Hillel Halkin, reviewing the Koren Sacks Siddur in the spring 2010 Jewish Review of Books, recounts a charming story that he heard from his father:

Refining Our Souls

By Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater
Published on March 22, 2011

The aphorism “you are what you eat” first appeared in French and then in German in the 1800s, and was then brought into English in the 1920s by nutritionist Victor Lindlahr, the inventor of the “catabolic diet.” Hippie foodies later adopted the phrase in the 1960s.

Recognizing a Community

By Rabbi N. Daniel Korobkin
Published on March 1, 2011

When looking for biblical themes on the importance of community, one needs look no further than those portions at the end of Exodus that deal with the construction of the mishkan (Tabernacle). This special structure represents the collective spiritual power of the Jewish people, which is far greater than the sum of the individual parts. Separately, the individual Jew does not have enough spiritual energy to bring the Divine Presence, the Shekhinah, into this world. But when the Jewish people join in the construction of a communal edifice, a structure that represents their collective worship and spiritual energy, the Shekhinah eagerly embeds Itself within the people.

Egypt: Tabernacle or Golden Calf?

By Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Published on February 22, 2011

As Jews, our character and faith are defined essentially by the story of our ancient liberation from slavery in Egypt, informing our concern for the welfare of those who are similarly oppressed. But as a minority often vulnerable to the whims of tyrannical victors, we are also keenly aware of the implications for Israel’s security and that of the entire free world based on the success or failure of the events unfolding in Egypt. Worldwide Jewry seems divided at worst and uncertain at best in determining our view of the ongoing revolution, embracing either but rarely both of these two authentic Jewish concerns.

Offering Appreciation

Published on February 8, 2011

It is written that Rabbi Simeon asked Elijah: "What does the Holy One, blessed be God, study in the firmament?" Elijah said to him: "God studies the sacrificial offerings."