Last Sunday night a rally was held in front of town hall. It was a rally against racism and in support of Charlottesville. About 40 people were there with signs including children. As drivers passed by, they honked in support. All except for one car that yelled something undiscernible out the window. While the words could not be made out the tone was angry and hostile. It temporarily shattered the holy space that had been created. After a...Read more...
The recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, this past week-end where white nationalists spewed their hatred are both tragic and deeply disturbing. Both my parents and grandparents are natives of Virginia, and members of my family are graduates of UVA. These events therefore touch my life in a very personal way.
Moreover, as a Jew, like you, I have a particular sensitivity to...Read more...
What did you accomplish? Where did you go to school? What is your career? We are trained from early on in American society to look to the future and to build our lives and sense of accomplishment through the achievement of goals. To put it another way we are a product driven society. However, Judaism offers a different approach. An approach that emphasizes process over product. No where is this more evident...Read more...
This past week we observed the holiday of Tisha B'av. The holy day of Tisha B'av commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem. The first Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE by the Babylonians and the second Temple in 70 CE by the Romans. For many Jews, this is a day of fasting and mourning. It serves as reminder of some sort of primal tear and severing between the Jewish people and God. The Temple in Jerusalem was...Read more...
Isidor I. Rabi, the Nobel laureate in physics was once asked, ''Why did you become a scientist, rather than a doctor or lawyer or businessman, like the other immigrant kids in your neighborhood? My mother made me a scientist without ever intending it. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: 'So? Did you learn anything today?' But not my mother. She always asked me a different question. 'Izzy,' she would say, 'did...Read more...
Once upon a time a group of conservative Rabbinical students were sitting in their homiletics class. The professor, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the eventual founder of Reconstructionist Judaism sat and listened to his students deliver their sermons. One student got up and gave an impassioned speech. At the end there was silence. Rabbi Kaplan sat deep in thought. The students waited silently to hear what the Rabbi would say. Finally, he spoke....Read more...
I was once at a day school doing a report on the students there. It was time for the morning services and everyone began to pray in Hebrew. About halfway through the service I asked a fourteen-year-old boy if he understood what he was saying. What he said next has stuck with me to this day.
He said, "If I think about what I am saying then yes I do understand". I then asked him if prayer was meaningful for him when he was not...Read more...
In this week's Torah portion Balaam, a non-Israelite prophet and a sorcerer of sorts, is sent by the king of Moab to curse the Hebrews. On his way to curse the Israelites in their encampment Balaam is stopped by an invisible angel. At first Balaam's donkey is the only one who can see the angel. Balaam whips his donkey and eventually the angel reveals itself. There are many lessons we can derive from this story, however, one of the most...Read more...
Earlier this week I had a meeting with a young woman who asked, "Are there acceptable and unacceptable things to ask God for in prayer?"
We discussed the four general purposes of prayer: praise, petition, gratitude and forgiveness. We explored what the Mishnah said (a collection of Jewish law from the 2nd century CE):
