Racial strife is nothing new. We sometimes speak as though our moment is uniquely fractured, as though division and suspicion are inventions of modernity. But the truth is more sobering. From the earliest days of human society, we have struggled…
Tag: Passover
Tzav and Shabbat HaGadol – An Altar of Peace, a Cup of Salvation, and an Offering of Thanks
As we come to Shabbat HaGadol, the Great Sabbath that ushers us to the threshold of Pesach, we find ourselves in a moment that is both reflective and anticipatory. We look back to redemption even as we prepare to experience…
Va’eira – Four Stages of Liberation
Listen to an audio version This Shabbat marks three weeks into the New Year in accord with the western secular calendar, the one by which a majority of Jewish people worldwide attempt to conduct their normal life’s business. Many have…
Passover Lambs and Chesed Community
Among messianic Jews much has been said concerning the parallels between the sacrifices of the paschal lamb and that of Yeshua. After all the paschal lamb was the Korban Pesach, the essential sacrifice which God commanded the children of Israel…
The Lamb of God; Dayenu
Listen to an audio version At the each Passover Seder just prior to the second cup of wine we sing Dayenu (lit. It would have been enough) a song that recognizes each of God’s beneficent gifts to Israel. After the…
Shabbat Parah – Get Ready For Change
I have always thought that cheshbon hanefesh, literally a reckoning with one’s own soul was a practice most appropriate at the beginning of Elul, the month that preceded Rosh Hashanah. To this end Rabbi Israel Salanter, founder of the…
Beshalach – Buyer’s Remorse
Listen to an audio version Here in Connecticut all contracts require a three-day “cooling off” period, a time when all involved parties can examine their contractual obligations and determine whether or not they can honor them. This allows the parties…
Cleaning Our Homes and Hearts
This Shabbat is Shabbat HaGadol or the Sabbath of “the Great One”. The Great One is Elijah the prophet, the one who according to tradition will herald the coming of the Messiah. So on this last Shabbat prior to Pesach…
Bo – Passover Lambs and Hesed Community
Listen to an audio version Every year the gift-giving season comes earlier and earlier, to the point that some desperate merchandisers try to lure us into their stores with X-mas in August promotional ads. But as we read Parashat Bo…
The Price of Hesed
Every year the gift-giving season comes earlier and earlier, to the point that some desperate merchandisers try to lure us into their stores with X-mas in August promotional ads. This year in reaction to the societal retreat due to Covid…