Talmud of America
My recent posts..."Talmud of America" Pardes Institute, a non-denominational study center based in Jerusalem, offers immersive Jewish learning around the world. One project is “Talmud of America,” which aims to illuminate and interpret, through Jewish eyes, some...
Twilight Zone
My recent posts...Twilight Zone בֵּין הַשְׁמָשׁוֹת Bein hashemashot, literally, between the suns. בֵּין הַשְׁמָשׁוֹת A twilight zone of time, or rather, out of time, between one day and the next. Our sages of old used this concept to explain certain miraculous...
When to Pray Yizkor
My recent posts...My edited comments from this past final day of Pesach. Ellie’s mom, Julia Helfman, died on her 95th birthday, December 24, 2025. This was the first Yizkor service Ellie feels obligated to attend. She said, “I’m now a member of a club I was not eager...
Timing
It had become a Kremer household Pesach tradition, or rather, a pre-Pesach tradition. Somewhere within a couple of days prior the first seder and noon on erev Pesach, something would go awry in the kitchen.
Remember! Forget!
Is Amalek demoralizing the Israelites by picking off the vulnerable? Perhaps shaming them for not protecting those most at risk?
After defeating Amalek, the Israelites are told to blot out the memory of that tribe — implying that we dare not again betray the unprotected.
The charge to erase the memory of Amalek closes with the injunction “lo tishkach / do not forget!”
As if we could!
Would that we could forget this past year, blotting out our feelings of vulnerability, but “lo tishkach / we cannot forget / we may not forget / we will not forget.”
Let us remember…and learn compassion and determination.
Shabbat shalom! שבת שלום