Every so often I’ll read something written by another rabbi that I very much want to share with our beloved Temple Emanu-El congregation.  This week, Rabbi (Dr.) Lawrence Hoffman posted this on Facebook to a group of Rabbis, and it elicited a poignant and robust conversation.  I love the way that he sets up the context for the conversation not just in current events and opinions, but through the long lens of Judaism.  This is more lengthy than is typical for our Kesher Quick, but worth it.  We will discuss it visa vi some Torah text in our 9am Shabbat morning Cevrei Torah Study (link)- please join us.  Shabbat shalom! Open Letter to My Students 6: Jewish Wisdom About Monuments of Oppression Tradition and the Rule of Creepy Crawly Things How do we use Jewish tradition to help us navigate life’s challenges? Just like love, tradition is a many-splendored thing, but its wisdom comes liberally mixed with age-old prejudices, superstitious nonsense, and downright stupidity. Thirty years … [Read more...]

The Talmud[1] tells us that if we are in shiva—the first seven days mourning an immediate family member’s death—and a major holiday arrives on the calendar, then our period of shiva is done. Caput. Over. This is pretty jarring. How is an individual who just lost a parent, sibling, spouse, or God-forbid, a child, supposed to abruptly end their mourning and enjoy a holiday? Why is it that the joy of the community takes precedence over the sorrow of a single person? This goes all the way back to the Torah, but it is all the more applicable to the complicated feelings we have as we approach the 4th of July this year. (Of course, the law is referring to Jewish holidays, but stick with me.) Back in the Book of Deuteronomy (Deut. 16:14), God tells the Israelites that all the people are required to rejoice during festivals. No matter one’s status in the community, all are commanded to rejoice. This leads the rabbis of the Talmud to ask the question hundreds of years later, “what should someone … [Read more...]

Korach is one of my favorite Torah portions of the year, not just because it was the parasha I read for my Bar Mitzvah eighteen years ago, but it is a parasha with lots of action. While many of us are away on summer vacations, the Torah reading cycle has some of the most important and exciting portions of the year. In this week’s installment of biblical drama, a group of stiff-necked Israelites led by Korach, Dotan, and Aviram rise up against Moses claiming that Moses is lording over the people being an unjust leader. The attempted coup d’etat fails in spectacular fashion. Moses holds a sacrificial competition between Korach and himself; whomever God chooses will be the leader of the Israelites. Inevitably, God chooses Moses, and Korach, Aviram, Dotan, and all if their followers are swallowed by the earth! The ending for Korach and his band of rebels is unforgettable. However, it leaves us questioning the difference between the challenges to authority that God likes and dislikes. … [Read more...]

If living through a global pandemic wasn’t strange enough, imagine adding a newborn baby! Bringing Zohara into a world of COVID-19 wasn’t exactly what Rachael and I had planned, but the virus never consulted with us. We will have quite the story to tell her one day! What I have learned from so many of you during these days is that the key to spiritually and mentally surviving the pandemic (and being a new Abba) is about having the right perspective. The story in this week’s Torah portion is all about perspective. Twelve spies go into the Promised Land to survey the area. Moses sends the representatives of the tribes to see what kind of land they’ll encounter. The twelve spies find a land filled with gigantic humans, grapes, and fortifications that are insurmountable. Ten of the spies are scared and want the Israelites to turn back; however, two spies, Joshua and Caleb, see the same land and decide that the Israelites should push onward. Here we have the perspective of a few, a minority … [Read more...]

Two thousand years ago in Babylonia (modern-day Iraq), the Jewish community in a small town called Derokera had a problem on Shabbat, a member of their community had died, and the family wasn’t sure if carrying the body of their loved one out from the home would violate Shabbat—thereby violating the laws of the Rabbis and the Torah. In comes Rabbi Nachman bar Yitzchak, a rabbi who has usually been known for preserving the laws of the previous generation, but not for interpreting any new laws. We might call him Rabbi Status Quo. Rabbi Nachman says that the laws of carrying on Shabbat can be broken in this case. Quickly, Rabbi Nachman’s colleagues challenge his ruling saying that he is wrong. However, Rabbi Nachman responds by giving this paramount principle in Judaism: So great is human dignity, that it overrides a prohibition in the Torah. Just as we are obligated to do almost anything to save a life, so too are we obligated to uphold human dignity. If our tradition upholds the … [Read more...]