Blog Archives

Giving, Up (P. Terumah)

2/23/2025

In liberal Jewish life, mitzvah often is translated as "good deed" and tzedakah as "charity." To English speakers, both sound optional.

In Jewish life, however, they're not optional. They are mandatory and essential to Jewish continuity and resilience. The whole point is to rise, and lift others as we do, and together raise up the holy.

Wise Restraints and Sapphire Skyways (P. Mishpatim)

2/16/2025

The Judaism of tradition is full of laws. It's easy to get lost in the laws, miss their ultimate point and turn our backs.

But societal moments that spotlight the rule of law often reveal grave risks when folks can accept or reject the role of law as they please. The point of law is to serve causes far beyond the individual.

And spiritually speaking, the point of law's wise restraints that make us free is just that – a profound freedom of soul.

The Eleventh Commandment (P. Yitro)

2/9/2025

Ten Commandments. We've read them. We've seen the art. We've seen the movie.

Jewish continuity, ethical purpose and spiritual becomingness all trace back to the pivotal sense-scrambling scene at Sinai. It is said that each of us was there, the roots of our souls joined in the creation of our collective covenant. On the Ten Commandments would come to rest not only Jewish life but also all Western law and morality.

But what if there weren't Ten Commandments but rather Eleven? And what if this Eleventh Commandment came first? And what if the Eleventh is the one that brings all others alive?

Heads up: the Eleventh aims at us, right now.

The Impossible Song of Our People (P. Beshallah)

2/2/2025

It was impossible. The liberation from bondage – our birth through the Sea of Reeds that opened into a birth canal – it could not happen.

Yet here we are, and we've been talking about it ever since. The splitting Sea animates Jewish liturgy. It drives Judaism's identity of ongoing human liberation from bondage, xenophobia and hate.

So what to do when modern life presents us with yet more high walls and seemingly unbridgeable chasms? What now?

Rabbi's Corner – February 2025: Prelude to Spring

2/1/2025

Happy February, Shir Ami.

After a cold, dark and bleak January, February ushers in the first hints of spring.

Even now, the first almond blossoms are starting to blossom in Israel. It's time for Tu b'Shevat, Judaism's start of spiritual spring.

If you're not ready, if it feels too early to matter, that's exactly the point.

Giving, Up (P. Terumah)

Wise Restraints and Sapphire Skyways (P. Mishpatim)

The Eleventh Commandment (P. Yitro)

The Impossible Song of Our People (P. Beshallah)

Rabbi's Corner – February 2025: Prelude to Spring

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