Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

Shemini Atzeret, in some regards the conclusion of Sukkot, is in other important respects a holy day all its own.  Certainly in the number of sacrifices offered, Shemini Atzeret is distinct. The Midrash suggests that Sukkot is a festival during which sacrifice is offered for all the peoples of the world. At the end of that week of universal concern, God bids the Children of Israel to stay for an extra day to commune with God, like a beloved friend is asked to stay at the party after the other dear guests depart. Read more...

Sukkot is known in rabbinic tradition as zman simhateinu, the season of our joy. Yet it comes on the heals of a time of year during which we focus on the large issues of life and death, of human frailty and resilience, on what our purpose on this planet is, and on how we are using (and on how we are meant to use) our time.  The months of Elul and Tishri, containing the Days of Awe offer a natural invitation to introspect, to stand before God in our nakedness, which is to say, in complete honesty, unfeigned, as we truly are. Read more...

I want to tell you a story of a man who lived nine hundred years ago around the times of the Crusades, Rabbi Amnon of Mainz.  Rabbi Amnon was a very prominent leader in the Jewish community. Read more...

Jews the world over are getting ready for our annual period of introspection, prayer, and gathering. Beginning with the moving Selihot services last Saturday evening/Sunday morning, moving through Rosh Ha-Shanah and culminating in Kol Nidrei and Yom Kippur, we will use our time to consider who we have become in the past year, we will contemplate the gap between our highest ideals and our actual behavior, and we will seek to make amends to ourselves, to each other, and to God. In that ancient renewal of soul and society, our Judaism offers us potent tools to assist us in our task: Read more...

Americans are justly proud of our heritage of religious freedom, whereby a person is not judged by denominational affiliation, but solely on qualities of merit, citizenship, and integrity.  Even when our nation does not live up to that ideal, it still affirms the ideal as a standard worthy of emulation and of continued effort. Read more...