Blogs

This is THE existential question facing any society, any group, even any family! When it comes to Jewish identity we have both the religious aspect, which for many of us is what we think of when we say “Jewish”, but we also have the ethnic aspect. The immense diversity in ethnic expressions of Jewish identity is, on the one hand, a cause to rejoice; more ways to achieve the same goal means more “wins” for...Read more...

This is the first Shabbat in the month of Nisan, the month of Spring and renewal. This is also the first Torah portion in the Book of Leviticus, also known as “Torat Kohanim”, i.e. the manual for priests. We are between the merriment and extremity of Purim and the celebration of freedom that we invite all to join in: “come, have boiled fish croquets with horseradish, shredded apple salad and crackers”. Yes,...Read more...

Our Torah portion this week, Ki Tissa (Ex. 30:11 - 34:35) contains a reminder of the unspoken challenge of Judaism: remain confident in our covenant with God, even when the facts we see appear not to support that. It was a brief moment ago that the Israelites were about to be wiped out at the shores of the Red Sea and miraculously, they were saved and made it to Mt. Sinai.  There the people witnessed the...Read more...

Mishkan. Tabernacle. From the root “to dwell.” A dwelling place for God among the people, a meeting of two worlds…

At the time of the writing of this week’s Torah portion, T’rumah, the mishkan was something very physical and tangible, an imposing tent filled with precious metals, colorful weavings, aromatic incense, mesmerizing gemstones, a golden...Read more...

This week’s Torah portion Yitro (Ex. 18:1 – 20:23) contains, among other things, what we commonly call the Ten Commandments. Did you know there is widespread disagreement about what is the first and what is the second commandment? The last five are “easy”, three of them are only two words in Hebrew, so no room for confusion, right?  Well, not exactly, as it turns out, given that our Hebrew text was...Read more...