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Two Visions of the Messianic Era

By Menachem Mirski PhD 03/07/2025 Leave a Comment Filed Under: Sermons

Thoughts on Parashat Tetzaveh 5785

One day, two old friends, Art and Joe, were sitting in a café, sipping their tea and arguing—like they had for the past 40 years—about when and how the Messiah would come.

“I’m telling you, Joe,” Art said, waving his spoon for emphasis, “the world is going to fall apart first. Total disaster! People will forget how to have a normal conversation, the price of everything will skyrocket, and absolute nonsense will be treated as wisdom. Then the Messiah will come to fix it all.”

Trip to Poland 2025

By Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak 03/04/2025 Leave a Comment Filed Under: Tours of Poland, Visiting Poland

A Unique People-Centered Journey Through Poland

Join members of the Rabbi Michael A. Signer Clergy Cabinet of Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland for a trip to Poland this May 14 thru May 22, 2025 (May 13th travel day). This Poland experience invites the group to gain a view of Poland’s historic significance, its memorial importance, as well as its contemporary Jewish communities. Our journey will speak to the challenge of Progressive Jewish values as we meet with leaders in Poland.

Dr. James Diamond’s Forthcoming Book “Raging Hassidic Sermons of R. Kalonymous Kalman Shapira”

By Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak 02/27/2025 Leave a Comment Filed Under: Freighted Legacies

Freighted Legacies Webinar

Dr. James Diamond’s book on “Raging Hassidic Sermons of R. Kalonymous Kalman Shapira” will soon be published. We are fortunate to hear of the unique teachings of a Hassidic master known as the Piaseczner Rebbe. R. Kalonymous Kalman Shapira continued to deliver sermons from September 1939 until the summer of 1942. Sermons from the Years of Rage and his other writings were included in the buried archives of the Warsaw Ghetto known as Oneg Shabbat.

The Torah and the Path to Inner Peace

By Menachem Mirski PhD 02/14/2025 Leave a Comment Filed Under: Sermons

Thoughts on parashat Yitro 5875

There is no peace—said GOD—for the wicked.
(Isaiah 48:22)

Our Sages, particularly, the rabbis of Talmud, loved all kinds of linguistic, semantic and logical approaches to the Torah, as well as intellectual experiments in terms of uncovering its hidden meanings and messages. They played with logical principles, often reversing logical implications. As a result of that, the verse I just quoted became a base for a talmudic concept which holds that if a person has a difficulty finding inner peace, it may be a sign that this person is wicked, or at least has done something bad or wrong. Today we know that while this may be one of the possibilities, the matter is much more complicated and typically a difficulty in finding inner peace does not indicate that the person affected by it is immoral or wicked. But there is some truth in this rabbinical concept, in this rabbinic judgement and we can find still some signposts for our spiritual life in it.

Rabbi Menachem Mirski

By Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak 02/12/2025 Leave a Comment Filed Under: Freighted Legacies, Guest Teachers, Rabbis, and Artists

The Many Worlds of a Modern, Young Polish Rabbi in Long Beach, California

Freighted Legacies is a webinar on the cultural life and times of Jews from Poland, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe.

Menachem Mirski is serving Temple Shalom of Long Beach after completing the Ziegler Rabbinic Program. He often appears on our pages, and he frequently discusses the weekly Torah portion in both English and Polish. While very busy in developing a revitalized young generation at Beth Shalom, he supports the re-development of the Sunday and Hebrew schools. Rabbi Menachem Mirski is an outstanding musician with a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin.

We are pleased that we will learn more about Rabbi Mirski’s journey from Przemysl to Lublin to Warsaw and Long Beach.

Perseverance and Organized Effort

By Menachem Mirski PhD 01/31/2025 Leave a Comment Filed Under: Sermons

Thoughts on Parashat Bo

There is a talmudic story about a Rabbi who traveled to a foreign city, and asked a little boy what’s the best way to enter that city.

“Which is the road leading to the city?” asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya of a youngster sitting at a crossroads. “This is the shorter one,” replied the lad while pointing to one road, “but it is longer. The other road is longer but shorter.” Rabbi Yehoshua decided to take the first road, which had been described as the shorter one, but when he approached the city he found access to it blocked by gardens and orchards. He returned to the crossroads and challenged his young guide for suggesting the shorter road that had turned out to be the wrong one. “But I told you,” replied the boy, “that although it is shorter in distance, it is longer in reaching your goal.” (Eruvin 53b)