This week’s parsha (Torah portion) was made for all the musicians in the audience. In it we find Miriam striking up the band as we sing the song of freedom after crossing through the Yam Soof (Sea of Reeds). However, I am getting a little ahead of myself. First, we’ve got to get there, and then we can sing, and then continue on our merry (?) journey to a date with the divine itself. Our parsha starts out by reminding … Continue reading
One way to look at shabbat (the Jewish sabbath) is that it is the completion of a 7 day cycle, and when it is over, we start a new cycle. Another way to look at it is to think of it as the moon. What I mean by this is that Wednesday is like the dark moon, and the energy of shabbat starts to grow and shine stronger and stronger as we go into Thursday and Friday, and is at … Continue reading
We are almost at the end of the Jewish month of Tevat, getting ready to go into the month of Shvat, and we find ourselves in the throws of the 10 plagues that god has sent against Egypt. How did we find ourselves in such a predicament? We are here because god won’t allow Pharaoh to let a bunch of slaves go out on a 3 day journey to make a sacrifice to their god. What in the world is … Continue reading
Hello and welcome to the Exodus. This week’s parsha (Torah portion) is the first of the second book that Moshe (Moses) transcribed from the divine creator-of-everything. I wonder what it must be like to put down in print your own story as told by someone else. Did Moshe ever stop haShem (god) and say, “Wait a minute, that’s not how it happened. It was like this.”? Then again, he is the humblest man in the world, so maybe he figured … Continue reading
I hope everybody is doing well. This week we finish the book of Genesis or Breisheit as it is referred to in Hebrew. We also saw the end of Jacob/Israel and Yoseph. Before Israel passes from us, however, he does give us some final pointers on how to interact with people. The parsha (weekly Torah portion) starts out with Yaakov/Jacob knowing he is near death and so he asks his son Yoseph to swear to bury him at the ancestral … Continue reading
The reason I decided to put, “Let’s talk Torah,” in the title is because the parsha (Torah portion of the week) is all about talking. Yehuda (Judah) tells Yoseph (Joseph) his side of the story of how they got into the predicament they are now in. Yoseph tells his brothers how he came to be running things in Egypt, the brothers tell Yaakov (Jacob) that Yoseph is still alive, Pharaoh tells Yoseph to send wagons for his family, the family … Continue reading
I hope everyone is having a wonderful, en-lightening Hanukkah. While the the flame still glow, I hope to fan it with the Torah portion (parsha) that coincides with those flames… The parsha is called Meekaytz and one of the meanings of this word is harvest. I want to look at the parsha from this point of view. In order to harvest, you must plant something. And as the saying goes: you reap/harvest what you sow/plant. the parsha starts right out … Continue reading
Hanukah begins just as Shabbat is going out. This reminds me of what rabbi Aaron, the rabbi of a shul I prayed at when I was in Jerusalem, said a few years back. He shared how Hanukah is a time of juxtaposition between the individual and the community. I want to take it a step further; I want to talk about the juxtaposition of free will and fate. Now before anyone asks about free will versus haShem (God) being all … Continue reading
Hi everybody. I hope this finds you all in good health and good spirits. The portion of the torah that we read this week is a continuation of Yaakov’s (Jacob) journey to becoming Israel. It includes the reconciliation of him and his brother Esau, and the destruction of the city of Schem, the death of Yaakov’s parents and his wife Rachel, and ends with Esau moving to make room for Yaakov, which is followed by a strange, repetitive listing of … Continue reading
The parsha (Torah portion) for this week , along with the beginning of the next week’s parsha, gives us a blueprint for how to live and interact with people. There are 3 scenarios that the Torah looks at: How do you deal with someone who changes the rules on you, How to deal with somebody who accuses, and What to do when you are feeling threatened. The latter scenario is in next week’s parsha, so maybe I will talk about … Continue reading