It happens each year, if we follow the calendar of readings from the Torah, for each individual Shabbat and then for the major festivals that are mentioned in the Torah and have their own specific Torah services (not Purim or Chanukah or Tu BiShvat) – it happens each year, throughout the year, that we are […]
Erev Rosh Hashanah
The theme for the High Holy Days, the ‘Yamim Nora’im’, the ‘Days of Awe’, is at its heart a very simple question and answer: Can one make good something bad that has been done? An insult, an injury, a financial loss, the damaging or destruction of a relationship, an injustice? The simple answer is: No, […]
To Love Is to See Potential
Thoughts on Parashat Nitzavim [perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for […]
Time to Be Grateful
When I was a little boy, my family had an allotment garden. All my relatives visited it from time to time, but it was clear to everybody that it was the kingdom of my great-aunt Irena, my grandma’s older sister. Aunt Irenka spent hours and hours on end there tending to the plants. She occasionally […]
Promises, Pledges, Oaths
Thoughts on Parashat Ki Tetzei When you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not put off fulfilling it, for the LORD your God will require it of you, and you will have incurred guilt; whereas you incur no guilt if you refrain from vowing. (Deut 23:22-23) We can distinguish three kinds of […]
Elul – the Month of Judgment
Time passes by inexorably; it seems as though the year 5778 has begun only yesterday, and already since last week we’ve been in the month of Elul, the month preceding the festival of Rosh Hashanah. Jewish tradition tells us that in the month of Elul we should reflect on the past year and take stock […]
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