EIGHTH-DAY PASSOVER YIZKOR: Shirah Chadasha–New Songs (presented by Rabbi Sacks on April 23, 2022) We just chanted a selection from the Song of Songs. We read: Arise my darling, my fair one, come away! For now the winter is past…the blossoms have appeared in the land, the song of the turtledove is heard in our […]
Seventh Day Passover: Crossing the Red Seas of Life (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on April 22, 2022) Today we read the unforgettable, thrilling episode of the crossing of the Red Sea. The Israelites, in great haste, cast off the chains and shackles of their servitude when Pharaoh, finally, granted Moses permission to take them out […]
The One Who Redeems Our Children[1] (Study led by Rabbi Sacks on Shabbat, the first morning of Passover, April 16, 2022) At our Passover seder, we use a Haggadah. The word Haggadah means “a telling.” But whose story do we tell on Passover? One obvious answer: Our people’s. We might also think: our own. […]
Pesach Passages: A Pre-Passover Haggadah Study (Taught by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on Saturday, April 2, 2022) As Passover (Pesach) draws near, it is not uncommon for people to make preparations for the holiday days in advance. For some of us, we must figure out logistics such as cleaning our home, kashering our kitchen, […]
Parashat Taz-ri’a: A Shift in Power from Biblical Text to Rabbinic Perception (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on April 1, 2022) This week’s Torah reading, Taz-ri’a, portrays the Priest as a physician, and it portrays spiritual blight as medical malady. The text focuses on scaly skins and malignant discolorations, but simmering beneath the surface is […]
Parashat Tzav (delivered by Student Rabbi Maayan Lev on March 18, 2022) Purim has come and gone, and, oh, what fun we had! It was so great to see everyone’s costumes, to hear the Megillah, and to sing songs together. I think it’s important to have time to relax and enjoy ourselves. In Judaism, that […]
Parashat Pikudei: The Holy Vessels in the Temple and Within Us (Haftarah Study led by Rabbi Sacks on March 5, 2022) Today we read the haftarah that Sephardic Jews read for this week’s portion, Pikudei, from I Kings 7:40-50. As it happens, Ashkenazic Jews read the same passage as the haftarah from last week’s portion, […]
Selections from Parashat Ki Tisa: Equality, Sin, and Atonement A Torah study led by Maayan Lev on February 19, 2022) Because we did not have a Torah scroll for our online services this Shabbat weekend, there was a need to temporarily depart from the usual format of our Torah service. I used that need to […]
Parashat T’rumah: G!d’s Need for a Dwelling (A Torah study led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on February 5, 2022) Our reading today mostly contained a detailing of the command to build the mishkan, a portable sanctuary, that our ancestors would carry throughout their desert wanderings. With our reading as background, let’s go to the beginning […]
Parashat T’rumah: Giving, Not Taking, Leads to Love (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on February 4, 2022) Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler[1] was an important figure of the twentieth century. A Talmudic scholar and Jewish philosopher, he served as the mashgiach ruchani, “spiritual counselor,” for the Ponevezh yeshiva, located in B’nei B’rak, a center of ultra-Orthodox Judaism just […]