WHAT MAKES ABRAHAM BETTER THAN NOAH There seems to be a general consensus that Abraham was a better man, better human being than Noah. I do not believe that we should dismiss Noah as a Tzaddik, a righteous person, however. Noah, imperfect though he MIGHT have been, still serves as a role model. In Sefer Continue Reading »
IT’S ALL CONNECTED Sometimes, to most of us, the various holidays and observances in the Jewish calendar seem unrelated to each other. They feel like each is discreet and stand-alone. We might say, in early March “ok, Purim is coming” and start to think of Hamentashen and megillah reading. Or, in December we think about Continue Reading »
SHABBAT CHOL HA’MOED PESACH (5784) Shabbat Shalom. Mo’adim l’Simcha. In a moment of great weakness, Rabbi Greene has permitted me to prepare a D’var Torah for this morning. Some of you long-time regulars in the evening minyan may recognize a familiar theme. If so, I apologize, but it is one that is very important to Continue Reading »
INQUIRE, STUDY DEEPLY, STUDY REPEATEDLY Why do we read the entire Torah in annual cycles? Every year, starting and ending at Simchat Torah we read, in the same order, the same words from the five books of Moses. Is there not some concern the repetition will become rote or even boring? Might we not just Continue Reading »
A QUESTION OF SEQUENCE A friend pointed out an interesting anomaly in a portion of our liturgy. There are a number of places in the service, notably early in the Torah service where we say “HaShem Melech, HaShem Moloch HaShem Yimloch la’olam va’ed, God is King, God was King, God will be king for Continue Reading »
THE CHANGES TO THE AMIDAH FOR THE HIGH HOLIDAY SEASON Each year, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, there are changes and additions to the weekday and the holiday and Shabbat Amidah. There are changes to all of the first three blessings. To one of the thirteen weekday petitions, and to the last two. Taken Continue Reading »
SHOFAR BLOWING DURING ELUL During the month of Elul, the last Hebrew month before Rosh Hashanah, the Shofar is sounded at every morning service except Shabbat. In our congregation we also blow shofar at night, a custom we developed for congregants who, because of work schedules etc., could not make the morning minyan. The sounding Continue Reading »
DEUTERONOMY AS METAPHOR The book of D’varim (Deuteronomy) can be looked upon as a metaphor for personal growth. Let’s start with a look at Moses at the burning bush in Exodus, chapter 3. Moses has, rather impetuously, killed an Egyptian taskmaster and had to flee to Midian. Now he is tending his father-in-law’s sheep Continue Reading »
THE FAST DAYS I was thinking about the rituals commemorating the humiliating defeat of Israel/Judea culminating with the destruction of the first and second Temples first by the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE and later the Roman Empire in 70 CE. Our rituals concerning national calamity involve scriptural readings, changes to the prayer Continue Reading »
KABBALAT SHABBAT One of the most beautiful moments in the week is the time, late Friday afternoon, when the work week is finally ending and Shabbat is about to begin. It is, for those of us who take Shabbat at all seriously, a special, spiritual mystical time. It is a moment when we can Continue Reading »
