Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

It was my playful and rebellious voice that kept me smiling when thinking about 'Daf Yomi' having a Bat Mitzvah. Nonetheless, this was true! Tens of thousands of men completed, only three weeks ago, the twelfth cycle of learning all of the Babylonian Talmud. One double-sided page a day for seven and a half years. Two thousand seven hundred and eleven dapim (double-sided pages). Read more...

We leave well before day break and as we speed toward dawn I keep asking myself how it is that I'm now the parent of a college student...I who can still remember vividly the details of my own freshman year so many years ago. Read more...

It is an auspicious week to be called on to contribute the ZSRS drashah. In the parashah this week, Vaetchanan, we read both the 10 commandments (Deut. 5:6-18) and the Shema and V’ahavta that have become central to Jewish liturgy (Deut. 6:4-9). This Shabbat on which we read this parashah is also every year the Shabbat known as Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of Comfort. It is the first Shabbat that occurs after the mournful day of Tisha b’Av, and is named for the first words of the haftarah, the first of the seven “haftarot of consolation,” from Is. Read more...

When I was a congregational Rabbi, I received many calls from people seeking personal counseling to handle problems with their families or friends. Time after time, someone would tell me of their difficulty in relating to someone else, explaining to me how that other person didn't really like them, never understood them, never gave them the benefit of the doubt.   Read more...

Last year on this week's Torah portion, I was in Cancun, Mexico for a vacation. I was at a crossroads in my life and unsure how to move forward. I was deciding between two professional avenues and had been debating internally to no avail. Read more...