From the Rabbi’s Study Cleaning Our Temple from the Idols We Worship Two seasoned sailors heard the chaplain preach on the Ten Commandments. When the sermon was over, one sailor muttered to his friend, “Well, at least I never made any graven images.” That sailor, like most of us, looked...
From the Rabbi’s Study The Narrow Bridge We’re On, and the Courage of Hanukkah Rav Nachman of Bratzlav taught that, “The world is a very narrow bridge. What’s essential, however, is to fear not.” Artist Michael Morgenstern was inspired by Rav Nachman to create this work of art: We are...
From the Rabbi’s Study Indispensable in Our Small Parts Humans seem to have evolved from common ancestors. Scientist point to homo habilus.“handy man,” and others that are part of the homo grouping, known for their brain size and structure, and their use of tools. Homo habilus existed between 1.4 million...
The word faith is widely used as a synonym for “religion,” just as “spiritual” has become, for some, a replacement for “religious.” Thus we might refer to a Christian as a “member of the Christian faith.” A Jew is often described as belonging “to the Jewish faith.” Thus, “faith” and...
On Time: Young Enough and Old Enough Is time an ally or an antagonist? It depends. It depends upon how we look upon time and how we use it. Time has been called a thief. That designation offers some truth: Time robs us of our loved ones, steals the springs...
Due to the global pandemic, the Jewish values of piku’ach nefesh, saving endangered lives, and sh’mirat hanefesh, protecting our own lives, rightly predominated. As a result, we’ve held services and classes on Zoom. As it turned out, Zoom was quite a blessing, enabling us to meet with one another, to...
As we all think about the relaxation of mandatory pandemic restrictions and how that might affect us, I noticed that outdoor concerts are starting to resume within the State of Israel at Sultan’s Pool, an ancient water basin in the Valley of Hinnom by the west side of Mount Zion...
The books of Joshua and Judges offer two competing views of how Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel) was conquered in biblical times. The book of Joshua argues that the conquest by those who entered the land after our people’s 40 years of wandering was rather efficient, quick, and complete....
This month we shall observe Yom HaShoah, the day of remembrance of those who perished in the Holocaust at the hands of Europe. This past September the results of a survey conducted about the Holocaust were released. I have mentioned this from the pulpit, and I am still unsettled about...
