Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

According to the "quotes" section of Goodreads.com, it was E. B. White who said, "Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process." So, like any joke, this one will be a dead frog once I try to explain it – but since it's rather "inside baseball," I suspect many readers won't understand it without an explanation: Rabbinical students in their final year of rabbinic training sometimes refer to themselves (or are referred to by others) as "erev rav." Read more...

It may be (at least for me writing this in Los Angeles, in the Northern Hemisphere) the middle of summer when the days are at their longest and brightest, but it is a dark time on the Jewish calendar. Parashat Devarim is always read on the Shabbat immediately preceding the 9th of Av (or sometimes on the 9th itself, while the fast is postponed to the 10th, on Sunday), the occasion on which Jews mark the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, and in many communities, other tragedies that have befallen our people over history as well. Read more...

Do we have to cross-over to inherit "Heaven" or "Hell"? Is it possible to experience either of them while still in one's lifetime? How did Moshe navigate his continuous movement between the realms of reality between which he continuously vacillated? How can you be a leader of people when you are also defined as "Ish Elokim" – a man of God, a spouse to God? Read more...

Some time ago, an eighth grade student came to my office to interview me about being a rabbi. It was Career Day at her school, and her assignment was to meet with someone in an job she found interesting and ask a list of pre-prepared questions, among them: "Do you have to wear a suit to your job? How much do you get paid? Is there much heavy lifting?" Read more...

Genesis 17 9) God said further to Abraham, "As for you, you and your offspring to come throughout the ages shall keep my covenant. 10) Such shall be the covenant between Me and you and your offspring to follow which you shall keep: every male among you shall be circumcised. 11) You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the sign of the Covenant between Me and you. 12) And throughout the generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days… Read more...