In the Torah portion for this week, King Balak of the Amonites hires Balaam, a mercenary sorcerer, to curse the Israelites. For reasons we don't learn from the Torah text, Balaam is able to summon God's power, so if left unchecked, Balaam could do some real damage to the Israelites. Reluctently, Balaam agrees to King Balak's request to curse the Israelites, but whenever Balaam summons the power of the curse, God changes the words from a curse to a blessing. In fact, this is the spot in the Torah where we read blessing, "mah tovu ohalecha ya'akov, mishk'notecha yisrael," How lovely are your tents O' Jacob, your dwelling places O' Israel. God won't allow Balaam to use any curse words, and in fact turns Balaam's curses into blessings. God is regulating free speech!  The study of Torah can be simply for personal spiritual fulfillment, but I believe a more powerful approach is to study Torah and use it as a lens through which we evaluate our actions and our beliefs. Whenever we have the … [Read more...]

When Tom Brady left the Patriots…the end of an era. When Oprah left television…the end of an era. When the Spice Girls broke up…the end of an era. When MySpace was no longer relevant…the end of an era. The reign of Bibi Netanyahu….the end of an era. The death of Moses, Miriam, and Aaron…the end of an era. In our Torah portion this week, Chukat, we read about the death of Miriam and Aaron, Moses' siblings; and we read about Moses' imminent death…the end of an era. The era of this journey began many years prior, a few months after Moses' birth could no longer be kept secret, his mother sent him in a basket down the Nile River, with Miriam positioning herself to later see him coming down the water's path. All of this, of course, a carefully planned last shot at keeping Moses safe after the pharaoh's decree to kill all of the boys born to the Hebrews. This was the beginning of the Book of Exodus, and the prelude to Moses leading the Hebrews (later … [Read more...]

This week, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported a two-fold increase in the number of anti-semitic incidents between May 2020 and May 2021. The ADL cites that most of these incidents involved a connection with Israel or occurred at or around anti-Israel protests and rallies around the United States. The messaging and action of some of these rallies walk and sometimes cross the line of legitimate criticism; they have begun with fair critique of the policy of a sovereign nation but ended with outright Antisemitism. While many people can and should speak up against policies with which they disagree, it is clear that fair critique of Israel often turns into anti-semitic attacks.   Likewise, in our Torah portion this week, Korach, a relative of Aaron and Moses, attempts a coup d'etat for the position of High Priest and leader of the people. What begins as legitimate feedback becomes a violent attempt to overthrow Moses and Aaron. Any reader of the Torah can recall that the Israelites … [Read more...]

Albert Einstein, who was a committed Jew, is once reported to have said, "I wish that I was not born a Jew, so that I could have the privilege of choosing Judaism (as a convert)." Yesterday, I had the privilege to sit on a beit din (rabbinic tribunal) with Rabbi Craig Lewis (Mitzpah Congregation, Chattanooga, TN) and Rabbi Alex Shuval-Weiner (Beth Tikvah) for a husband and wife who were converting to Judaism. Their journey to the mikveh began more than a decade ago, and involved years of study, serious soul-searching about what they believed, and what they were looking for out of life.  For religion, ultimately, is something that is intensely personal. The biblical model of folks who seek conversion to Judaism is our matriarch, Ruth.  Ruth was a Moabite, yet with a sense of faith and loyalty, she followed her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi, out of famine-struck Moab back to Israel.  Unsure about what type of welcome they would receive, and what type of life they could expect, Naomi … [Read more...]

Jews don't have history, they have memory. This is the claim made by Avram Infeld, a thought-leader in the Jewish world today. Even the word for history in Hebrew is toldote תולדות-the root of this word is the same as the word for birth, child, son, daughter, and children. When we speak about the "history" of the Jewish people, we are talking about the shared memory of our family. Whereas in Hebrew "American History" is called historia amerikanit, the subject of Jewish history is called "toldote Yisrael." When we learn the stories of our people, we are supposed to relate to it as though it was our own memory. This goes all the way back to the Pesach Seder with the commandment to see ourselves as though we were the ones who left Egypt. Jewish history-or memory-calls for us to see ourselves as the next link in the chain, a part of a grand tradition of storytelling that leads to feelings of mutual love and respect, a connection spanning space and time.   Here we are, approaching another … [Read more...]