Tag: parsha-hashavuah
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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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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…
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Measure for Measure
Our Torah reading this week (Numbers 16) concerns the most serious rebellion confronted by Moses in all of the forty years in the desert. A man named Korach leads an uprising of 250 Israelites, “chieftains of the community …. men of repute” against Moses, saying, “All of the community is holy, all of them, and…
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Noa and Joseph
Today I want to share a poem with you by Israeli poet Natanel Ellinson. It was published in a weekly newsletter I receive from Israel called “Shabbat Shalom”. I discovered this newsletter on a visit to Israel in 2017, where a hard copy for the week was waiting for me on my seat at a…
Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph 