Tag: faith
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Finding Ones Voice
This week I share a teaching from The Sefat Emet, Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905), one of the most influential Hasidic masters of the late 19th century. He comments on the very first verse of the Book of Deuteronomy, our parsha hashavuah, our Torah portion for this week: “These are the words that Moshe…
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Transforming Darkness to Light
This week’s thought for Shabbat is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Philp Lazowski, who passed away on June 18 at the age of 96. Rabbi Lazowski was a childhood survivor of the Holocaust. He immigrated to this country with his father and brother after the war and was ordained as a rabbi in 1962.…
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A Judaism without Israel?
In his great legal code, the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides praises the discipline of silence: “One should always cultivate silence and refrain from speaking, except about matters of knowledge or things necessary for one’s physical welfare. It was said that Rav, the disciple of our saintly teacher Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, never uttered an idle word in…
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Rising to the Occasion
Our Torah reading for this week opens with the words: “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: A priest shall not defile himself among his people.” The Torah then prohibits priests from coming into contact with the dead, except for seven close relatives — wife, mother, father, son, daughter, brother,…
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A Conspicuous Absence
Our parasha this week, Tetzaveh, opens with the words, “You shall command the People of Israel….” It is striking that it does not begin with the usual formula, “God spoke to Moses.” Even more surprising, the name of Moses does not appear anywhere in this parasha. From the beginning of Exodus through the end of…
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Praying Together or Alone?
The emphasis in Judaism tends to be on communal prayer. We need a “minyan”, a gathering of ten adults, in order to recite the mourner’s kaddish and other prayers in our liturgy. Jewish law states that one should make every attempt to pray in a synagogue with the community. The rabbis even maintain that one’s…
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The Days of Our Lives
Chesed is an important word in Jewish life. It means love, but a particular kind of love –generosity of spirit, kindness, compassion and open heartedness. Abraham is said to be the embodiment of this kind of love. Every day that Abraham lived, he did acts of Chesed. The Slonimer Rebbe (1911-2000) takes this further. He says…
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Broken Vessels
Our holy Torah knows of no unflawed or perfect people. Despite the high esteem that we hold for Abraham, the Bible does not present him as without faults. When a famine drives him and his wife to Egypt, the Torah tells us that Abraham is concerned for his own safety. (Genesis 12:10-20) What if the…
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God’s Business
“Excellence I can reach for. Perfection is God’s business” – Michael J. Fox In this week’s Torah portion (Genesis 16:2) we find Sarah and Abraham childless at an advanced age. Sarah has a maidservant named Hagar. She suggests that Abraham might have a child with her, who Sarah and Abraham could then adopt and raise…
Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph 