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A Mother’s Day Story
Chaim Weitzman, who was to become the first President of the State of Israel, once used Mother’s Day to advance the argument for a Jewish State in what was then Palestine. The story goes that a British gentleman said to him: “Dr. Weitzman, what do you need to start a Jewish country for in that…
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Happy Birthday Israel
When Theodore Herzl conceived of the idea of a Jewish State, he hoped that it would solve the “Jewish problem” — that antisemitism would be eradicated if Jews could become a normal people in a normal nation state. Yet here we are, 77 years after the founding of the State of Israel, and antisemitism is…
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Out of Egypt Part V
On our tour of Egypt I had eagerly anticipated our visit to the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, which was recently re-opened as a tourist site by the Egyptian government. The Ben Ezra Synagogue is the place where the Cairo Geniza was discovered, a treasure trove of Jewish manuscript fragments from the 6th to the…
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Next Year in Jerusalem
Toward the conclusion of our Seders we recite the words, “Bashannah Habahah Birushalayim Habenuya” — “Next year in Jerusalem rebuilt”. Thus, we begin our seder (“Now we are here, next year may we be in the Land of Israel) and end it remembering our ancestral homeland. This year I thought about my ancestors, having their…
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New Beginnings
Passover is a time of new beginnings. The egg which we place on our seder plates represents the cycle of life and the chance for a new beginning. The parsley represents Spring. One of the names of Passover is “Chag Ha-aviv” — the Festival of Spring. Spring is also a time of renewal. The Talmud…
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Out of Egypt Part IV
Egypt occupies a large space in Jewish consciousness. Our Torah tells us the Jacob descended to Egypt with 70 members of his family to escape famine in the Land of Canaan. The descendants of that family were enslaved. The Festival of Passover is devoted to telling the story of our bondage in Egypt and re-enacting…
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Why Did God Bring the Israelites out of Egypt?
I was the guest rabbi at Congregation Sons of Zion in Holyoke last Shabbat. I asked those in attendance what they thought was the main purpose of the Exodus from Egypt. Here are a few of the responses I received: The 13th Century scholar Ibn Ezra answers the question by citing Exodus 29:46: “And they…
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Out of Egypt Part III
Perhaps the most impressive site that we visited in Egypt was the Temple of Karnak. It is a massive archeological site that dwarfs anything I have seen in Israel. This complex was begun around 2000 BCE. Approximately 30 Pharaohs contributed to its building down to the Ptolemaic dynasty. (300 BCE). The picture above shows my…
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Out of Egypt Part II
When I was a child growing up in Scranton Pennsylvania, the Everhardt Museum of Natural History was a short walk from my house. I would visit frequently on my own. The Bird Gallery had an impressive permanent exhibit of over 600 preserved birds from around the world. The Rocks and Minerals collection featured a case…
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Out of Egypt
My wife, Middy, and I just returned from a two-week trip to Egypt. The impetus for visiting Egypt was to visit our son, who is living temporarily in Cairo. We decided to combine that visit with an organized tour of Egypt which focused on the ancient historical sites of the Pharaohs. Egypt is of course…
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Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph 