Category: Year
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Va’Etchanan 5783: “That is Your Wisdom and Understanding”
This week was my first “holiday” week at Ohev Sholom. Because the “holiday” in question was Tisha b’Av, I didn’t have to worry about cooking a big holiday meal, but preparing for Tisha b’Av was stll…
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Matot-Ma’asei 5783: “Finding Equilibrium”
One of the techniques used by television writers to build excitement as a TV series reaches its grand finale is to bring back characters from earlier episodes for cameo appearances in the final episode. This resolves…
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Hukkat-Balak 5783: “Transitions”
One of my favorite rabbinic jokes is particularly appropriate for a Shabbat such as this one. I first shared it publicly ten years ago, I shared it again a few weeks ago, and I’m going to…
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Baha’alotcha 5783: “Crisis & Insight”
While packing up our apartment last week I found these handwritten notes which are my father’s notes from the speech he delivered at my bar mitzvah. I don’t remember much of the speech itself because, as…
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Emor 5783: “Crimes & Context”
On April 15th, 1936, a group of Palestinian insurgents loyal to Izz Ad-Din al-Qassam, shot and killed two Jewish motorists on the road between Nablus and Tulkaram. Days later two Palestinian laborers were shot and killed…
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Bo 5783: “Negotiating In Good Faith & Bad”
There are two great movie versions of the story of Yetziat Mitzraim, the exodus from Egypt: Steven Spielberg’s Prince of Egypt and Cecille B. Demille’s The Ten Commandments. Both draw heavily from midrashim to flesh out…
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Vaera 5783: “And I Appeared to Them”
As you know I live in Chicago but, thanks to the Internet, I sometimes listen to the radio in New York. Over the past two weeks, I have been listening to an “oral history call-in” that…
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Miketz 5783: “Between Persecution and Salvation”
I’ve told you before about the Christian family we met when we lived in Jerusalem fifteen years ago. They practiced a very austere form of Protestant Christianity which attempted to purify Christianity from what they saw…
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VaYeshev 5783: “They Could Not Speak Peaceably Unto Him”
I want to tell you a story about a brilliant idea that I had for a shul program and why I never implemented the program. I thought it would be a valuable experience for our shul…
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Toldot 5783: “And She Went to Inquire of the Lord”
Many of you know that our twins have been serving as weekday gabba’im since they each became bar mitzvah about 18 months ago. It has been a big relief for me to have them help to…
