My recent posts…

Words / yom ha’atzma’ut

Like so many other commentators — ancient to modern — Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks elaborates on the construct of tzara’at, an unidentified skin ailment, as recompense for evil speech, lashon hara. Long-ago rabbinic wordplay connected tzara’at to words, speech, that can be hurtful. Aside from a clever acronymic derivation, why would the sages have focused on speech?

Selling Chametz

Even if you don’t keep a kosher kitchen, and/or you don’t “convert” your kitchen for Pesach, there is still spiritual value in selling your chametz: You are engaging with myriad Jews worldwide in a practice that can be traced back to Torah and, if you include a donations to “ma’ot chitin,” you are enabling those in need to more fully celebrate Pesach.

Kedusha

Dec 21, 2023 | A Rabbi Writes

Kedusha

The siddur, the guide to our prayer lives, is rich with yearning, with gratitude, with praise. The heart (“mimmekomecha”) of the heart (kedusha) of the heart (amida) of the morning service on Shabbat and festivals is a plea for Adonai to restore divine sovereignty over Jerusalem. (Perhaps it is only God’s hand that can establish peaceful coexistence in that sacred city….)

Last spring, I composed a new melody for that text (page 161 in Siddur Lev Shalem). Listen, learn and come sing/pray it with us on Shabbat! 

Shabbat shalom! שבת שלום