October 23rd, 2015/10 Cheshvan 5776 “Don’t stop after beating the swords into plowshares, don’t stop! Go on beating and make musical instruments out of them. Whoever wants to make war again will have to turn them into plowshares first.” – Yehuda Amichai, Israeli Poet I was hoping that it wouldn’t happen. I was hoping that we […]

One is not born into the world to do everything but to do something. – Henry David Thoreau Sometimes in the Torah, the smallest and most seemingly insignificant people and moments can have the biggest impact. This week, we begin the story of Joseph, the Torah’s longest continuous narrative (and one that has been made […]

November 20th, 2015/8 Kislev 5776 Whenever tragedy strikes in the world, we start asking the toughest of questions, and we often become unsure of what should be done to bring us back to a place of healing and peace. The events in Paris and Lebanon last week were an especially strong shock to the world, […]

November 27th, 2015/15 Kislev 5776 Walking around with a name like Boris has gotten me in a lot of trouble. Even in America, a country with a diversity of people and an equal diversity of names, my name stood out. Upon hearing my name, people would often assume that I was born in Russia and […]

A fence for wisdom is silence. Avot 3:17 October 30th, 2015/17 Cheshvan 5776  – The Jewish people are known for being good talkers. We argue, we ask questions, we find something in the world that need fixing and we kvetch about it and talk about it until something is done. But our tradition also teaches us […]