Listen to an audio version It is noteworthy that this week’s portion, which is entitled, Chaye Sarah, the life of Sarah, actually chronicles the matriarch’s death and burial, and her husband’s contemplative mourning. It begins though with a one sentence…
Tag: Messianic
Lech Lecha – The Syntax of Silence
These are anxious times. Many people are facing significant changes in their lives and the long-standing institutions that help inform their lives and lend them a sense of security. People often feel insecure regarding their safety, their finances and the…
A More Intimate Gathering
Listen to an audio version When I was a boy growing up in New York our family gatherings were like a scene out of the Barry Levinson movie Avalon. On Thanksgiving and Chanukah especially our get-togethers would involve not only…
B’reishit – Facing Our Other Side, East of Eden
As we begin to explore this story of humankind outside the Garden of Eden, we like Cain should be uncomfortable with our first encounter being fratricide. Yet if we are honest with ourselves, we need to admit that we walk…
Everybody Needs a Hero
Everybody needs a hero although often we don’t get the one we expect. Today’s Torah portion describes the heroic actions of Aaron, the Kohen Gadol (High Priest). Like most true heroes, he had to rise to an occasion greater than…
Shabbat Shuvah: Re-Righting Our Stories
Listen to an audio version “I am now one hundred and twenty years old, I can no longer be active.” With that surprising realization, Moses begins his final address to the children of Israel. When Moses completes this address he…
Nitsavim – Choose Life
Listen to an audio version God is dead! Or so some would say, such as Richard Rubinstein the esteemed former professor of religion at University of Florida and Bridgeport University. As a leading cultural analyst, and a most prominent…
Ki Teitze – Making Sense of the “Texts of Terror”
If we are to be perfectly honest, much of the law codes reorganized and restated in the book of Devarim seem oddly archaic, highly impractical, and at times, even disturbingly unethical! This week’s parashah, Ki Teitze is chocked full of…
Eikev – Imitate God, Serve Others
There is a biblical mandate to treat all people with equal respect. “Do nothing out of selfishness or conceit, but with humility consider others as more important than yourselves.” (Phil. 2:3) But is this how most of us conduct ourselves?…
Shelach Lecha – Monsters, Giants and Other Formidable Obstacles
In the spring of 2002 I went to an art exhibit that was featuring a grouping of pictures painted by a good friend who was beginning the process of leaving the safety of a career as a commercial artist…