Reflections on Ritual and Prayer

From the desk of our Ritual Director Gordon Goldman

• TERUMAH: MAKING A SACTUARY FOR GOD TO DWELL WITHIN US
  TERUMAH: MAKE FOR  ME A SANCTUARY (How does this apply today) At the beginning of Parashat Teruma, starting at Shemot (Exodus) Chapter 25, God tell Moses to tell the Israelite people to bring God gifts as their hearts move them. These gifts of various valuables whether precious metals, cloths, fragrant oils and the such are to be ...
• IGNORE HISTORY AT YOUR OWN RISK
  IGNORE YOUR HISTORY AT YOUR RISK The second book of the Torah, Shemot, tells us that a new king arose in Egypt who did not know Joseph. How could he not know Joseph? Surely, having ascended to the throne after Joseph’s death, he did not now Joseph personally, but, even if he was a few generations ...
• WHY IS ABRAHAM A GREATER MAN THAN NOAH?
  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 B’reishit (Genesis) ...
• IT’S ALL CONNECTED
  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 preparing ...
• TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WANT GOD TO TREAT YOU SHABBAT CHOL KA MOED PESACH 5784
  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 me. Blame ...
• IT TAKES SEVERAL READINGS TO GET THE FULL MEANING
  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 stop ...
• A QUESTION OF SEQUENCE
  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 ever ...