Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

The synagogue Torah service is typically an auditory experience. We sit in our seats and listen to the words being conveyed to us by our Ba’al/Ba’alat Koreh. There are however, certain moments in the annual Torah cycle that are best observed visually, and standing at the bima is really the prime real estate to experience them from. Read more...

Dear Friends, The great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once wrote: "To pray is to pull ourselves together, to pour out our perception, volition, memory, thought, hope, feeling, dreams, all that is moving in us, into one tone. Not the words we utter, the service of the lips, but the way in which the devotion of the heart corresponds to what the words contain, the consciousness of speaking under God's eyes, is the pith of prayer." (Man's Quest For God, 15) Read more...

Author Jane Tillner, in a book called Nothing, tells the story of Pierre-Anthon, a seventh grader who learns about death and realizes there is no meaning to life. Pierre leaves his classroom, climbs a tree, and stays there. Despite their greatest efforts, his classmates cannot make him come down, not even by pelting him with rocks. Read more...

In my home, there’s one refrain I often hear. Whenever I turn off the television while my son is watching, he invariably says, “No, Mom, this is my favorite part.” I must have an uncanny talent – of knowing exactly what his favorite segment is of every program because no matter when I turn off the television, it’s his favorite part. Read more...

Why do people turn to Judaism?  Certainly we have lived through enough to know that being religious doesn't mean that we can avoid the spills and disappointments that festoon the road of life.  A Jewish commitment doesn't automatically liberate a person from fear or anxiety or guilt, nor can it guarantee happiness or success.  If Judaism can't provide those lofty goals, then what good is it?  Why bother? Read more...