Tag: parsha-hashavuah
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The Perennial Struggle for Justice and Equality
One storyline in the PBS series Downton Abbey centered on who would inherit the Grantham estate and title. The Earl of Grantham, Robert Crawley, and his American-born wife, Cora, had three daughters: Lady Mary, Lady Edith, and Lady Sybil. Under English law, however, the estate and title had to pass to a male heir when…
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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 