Monthly Archives: December 2014

Normally I would wait almost exactly a half-year to write about Parshat Shelach, the Torah reading about the “spies” who, sent by Moshe to scout out the land, returned with a list of complaints and exaggerations and took the heart … Continue reading →

If you’re much younger than me, unless you’re a country and western fan or a musicologist, you’re probably not familiar with Johnny Cash’s great hit, A Boy Named Sue. Listen to the song for its message or just to refresh … Continue reading →

It’s the seventh night of Chanukah. I’ve lit with oil for more than thirty years. I have an old, unornamented chanukiah that was very common in Jerusalem. It still might be. Constructed of brass and faced with glass, it’s like an … Continue reading →

We begin the descent into the Egyptian exile as Yosef’s brothers travel to Egypt to buy food in order to survive the famine which encompasses Canaan. From a peak as the honored and privileged family of Yosef who saved Egypt and … Continue reading →

Every year the dominant theme of Chanukah is the light we add to the world, especially in its darkest days. Every rabbi, myself included, gives the same speeches/lessons year after year. While we point out that the paragraph, Al HaNissim, … Continue reading →

Parshat VaYeshev, our upcoming Torah portion, begins with the oft-told lesson that just because Ya’akov desired to sit back, l’shev, and enjoy his life after years of challenge and struggle, he was, instead, visited with even more pain-filled years. His beloved sons quarrel and … Continue reading →

There is a Hebrew proverb, עין סומכים על הנס, Eyn Somchim al HaNes, which literally says don’t rely on a miracle. But, approaching Chanukah where we celebrate at least two miracles, and in at least two ways (we both recite הלל … Continue reading →

Our nusach, liturgy, both weekday, Shabbat, Chaggim (Festivals) and the Yomim Noraim (High Holy Days), includes many acrostics (prayers/praises based on the Aleph-Bet (the Hebrew alphabet)). Although not included in the liturgy, the longest of the Psalms, 119, is an acrostic composed of … Continue reading →