I love reading and trying to find layers of meaning in Torah texts from the last 3,500 years of the Jewish literary heritage. Since most of my teaching takes place on the sabbath, I rarely get to write down my ideas – this collection of posts is the rare exception.
Sharing the wonderful words of Torah delivered from the pulpit of B’nai Keshet in Montclair, New Jersey by my daughter on the occasion of her bat mitzvah: Listen carefully to this story from the Talmud: Two people are traveling in the wilderness, and only one of them has a canteen of water. There is only a little bit of water and if they split the water they will both die, but if one of them drinks the whole thing, they…
Israel’s “leading blogger” Shmuel Rosner interviews Rabbi Daniel Brenner about the Book of Exodus. Here’s more about Rosner.
This is an adaptation of a parable from the Maggid of Dubno (Rabbi Jacob Kranz) “Once there was a wealthy man who wanted to protect his fortune so he hid his wealth in different places in his house. He died before telling his young son where he had hidden the money. After the father’s death, the son lived in the home but he had no work and he had little to eat. He grew increasingly desperate and one day was…
I was asked by the good folks in Charlotte, North Carolina’s Chavurat Tikvah to share a few words on the Rosh Hashannah Day 1 Haftarah. While I didn’t have time to write out a drash, I did put some thoughts together and had a half way decent insight on the topic. So here’s how I started — Chana’s prayer is a beautiful counter-culture moment in the RH liturgy. Here we are with all this gratitude and all hail God is…
It is Tisha B’av and I write from the city that sits alone. Jerusalem, last night your streets were filled with pilgrim mourners and police forces, pillow-carrying grandfathers and acne-riddled flag waving teenagers, one guy I saw driving through the Jewish quarter on a Kawasaki. Yid on a Mamluk bike traversing ancient Roman sidewalks. Rak po. So what is my prayer? I would like one day to see the security fence torn down and the concrete and metal from the…
The Jewish Week is expanding their roster of rabbinic commentators and Reb Blog got called up to the plate this week. (thanks Jonathan) Here’s my drash on this week’s Torah portion: Shabbat Shemot Revolution By The Nile: Defiance In The Global ‘Egypt’ Fifteen years ago, I was a passenger on a rusty bus headed out of Egypt. Like many of the young Jewish college kids who had found their way to Cairo on a tourist visa, my weeks in Egypt…