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We Acknowledge the Past, But Don’t Live There
This Tuesday coming up is Tisha B’Av, the Ninth of Av, a day of sorrow and commemoration for the destruction of the ancient Temples in Jerusalem. There were two Temples, the first destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and the second by the Romans in 70 CE. Tradition teaches that both were destroyed on…
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Only Prayers
There is an interesting passage in this week’s Torah portion, Mattot. We are coming to the end of the book of Numbers in our weekly Torah reading cycle, and the Israelites are poised on the eastern side of the Jordan river ready to enter into the promised land. Their years of wandering are over, they…
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Peace Fast
My heart has been heavy this past week reading the news coming out of the Middle East. Beginning with the kidnapping and murder of three young Israeli yeshiva students, followed by the horrendous revenge killing of an even younger Palestinian boy, we are witnessing a deepening round of violence. As rockets land in Israel and…
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A Post-“Hobby Lobby” Fourth
Tomorrow we celebrate the Fourth of July, the central observance of our civil religion as Americans. I believe that as Jews, we need to pay particular attention to the observance of this day. As a minority in this country, we are indebted to the founding principles and values of America. It is the idea of…
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Two Votes on Divestment
Recently we have seen two votes taken around divestment from Israel. First, the student senate at the University of Washington overwhelming voted (59-8) to not support BDS and divest from companies doing business with Israel. This was an important victory because while the resolution was about economic divestment, because it was an academic institution, the…
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Korach Gone But Still Here
This week in our Torah reading cycle we come to the story of Korach. Korach was a member of the Levite tribe, the tribe in which was invested the mantle of leadership of the Israelite community. Moses was of the Levites, and so was Aaron, his brother, whose line became the priesthood. The other non-priest…
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This Is The Place
We are back from our adventures, and we all made it! It was a wonderful trip, full of many great new sites and experiences. We visited family and friends (including a surprise meet-up with my college roommate), explored sand dunes and canyons, discovered fossils, visited an observatory, went on walks and hikes, swam in Lake…
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Atlas
This year I spent a very non-traditional Shavuot on the road, driving north on U.S. Highway 93 from Las Vegas to Wells, Nevada, a drive of almost 400 miles. When we planned this trip, we knew it would take us over the holiday. We were in Vegas at the time visiting family, and although we…
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Mountains and Canyons
There is one blessing I have been saying a lot this trip: Baruch atah Adonai eloheynu melech haolam oseh ma’aseh bereshit Blessed are you, Adonai our God, sovereign of all time and space, who creates the works of Creation. It is the blessing our tradition teaches we say whenever one sees an object of natural…
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