Community Blog

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Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Chayei Sarah, in which Sarah dies, Abraham purchases his first piece of land in Ha’Aretz, and Isaac gets married off to a woman he’s never met. I know I say this a lot, but there’s a lot happening in this parasha. There’s also a lot happening in the...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom. This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Lech Lecha, the beginning of our people’s covenant with God, when Abraham (still Abram) first heeds God’s call. It also tells us of Sarai’s difficulty in getting pregnant, and her “giving” her maidservant Hagar to Abram as a surrogate. However, once...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom. I have never before spoken about Israel from the bima, but I have felt devastated this week, and I cannot keep silent. I was heartbroken and worried for my people on Saturday and Sunday, alongside the rest of the Jewish world, after hearing about the largest single massacre of...Read more...

Shalom and tzaharayim tov. Our afternoon Torah reading tells us, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” All of Jewish life can be summed up here. We are constantly on the search for holiness, to understand what it means to honor our Divine Spark, to strive to walk in God’s way. The Holiness Code, the section of Leviticus we read from this afternoon, gives us some guidance, but between God’s...Read more...

          Anyada buena, dulse i alegre. Tonight we begin the final ascent of our high holy day season. After a month of introspection throughout Elul, a beautiful Rosh HaShana Seder and celebratory Rosh HaShana Day, and these ten Days of Awe, we arc toward our close with Yom Kippur. Tomorrow, many of us will be at the synagogue all day, alternating between praying, learning, kibbitzing, and...Read more...

Groovy Teshuvy, y’all. Here we are at the start of a new year, a time of possibility. Here we are at the Jewish high holy days, a time of introspection. This is the season of teshuvah (or teshuvy), a chance to repent and to return to our best selves. While we are certainly a people...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom!  This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Ki Teitzei, which contains the most laws of any single parasha in the Torah. Among these lists of commandments are rules regarding fair labor practices. 

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Shabbat Shalom!  This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Korach, in which a Levite named Korach leads an Uprising against Moses and Aaron and is ultimately smote by God, with the earth opening up and swallowing whole Korach and all his...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Nasso. In the Reform tradition in particular, we are reading the second half of Nasso, in which we read about the rules for the Nazirite, one who takes an oath to separate themselves from worldly experiences for a time, focusing on spiritual experiences...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom. Today is the 23rd day of the Omer. We are almost exactly halfway through this period from Pesach to Shavuot, from liberation to revelation. This time of year, every year, Jews around the world gather and recount the Exodus from Egypt, freedom from slavery, and survival as a...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach! This Shabbat’s Torah portion breaks from the chronological parashat hashavua to revisit a section of Exodus where Moses and God have a pretty intimate one-on-one about the leadership of this newly freed nation of slaves. Moses asks God to continue to lead the people in a very visible way, not just through himself, so that the whole world may know that the Israelites shall be distinguished from the...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Vayikra, the first parasha of the Book of Leviticus. This parasha and most of Leviticus discusses the rituals around sacrifices: the when, what, why, how, and by whom the sacrifices are offered at the Mishkan. 

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Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Tetzaveh, which mostly focuses on the garments and accroutrements of the Priests serving in the Mishkan. This is also Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat immediately preceding Purim, which includes a special extra Torah reading from...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Yitro, in which we find the 10 Commandments and Moses learning from his father-in-law how to be a stronger leader through delegating tasks to other potential leaders in the nation. In discussing the parasha with Philip, we got into a bit of a disagreement about the final of the Big Ten. I don’t disagree with him,...Read more...