By Rabbi Haim Shalom לך לך In parashat “Lech Lecha”, we read the origin story of our people. It is a story of a calling. Of a journey. Of a special land and a special destiny. It is our story, but it is also a universal story. A story about the spiritual necessity of journeying […]
Friday October 21, 2023 – ה׳ חֶשְׁוָן תשפ”ד וַתִּשָּׁחֵ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ לִפְנֵ֣י הָֽאֱלֹהִ֑ים וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס׃ (בראשית ו:יא) “The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with lawlessness.” (Genesis 6:11) It is surely more than a coincidence that this week we encounter in Torah the story of Noach, set in a world that was […]
Friday October 13, 2023 – כ״ח תִּשְׁרֵי We are now almost a week into this war, six days after the most bloody and gruesome attack on our people. The horrific stories of death and heroic stories of survival are coming to light. It will take time to begin to fully internalize the magnitude of this […]
This morning, I donated my army boots and uniform. As a reserve officer in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, I haven’t done reserve duty in over 10 years. I keep my boots and uniform in a friend’s storage closet in Israel on the off chance that I might need them. This morning, my friend informed me […]
Friday October 6, 2023 – כ״א תִּשְׁרֵי תשפ”ד סוּכּוֹת ז׳ – הוֹשַׁעְנָא רַבָּה Dancing with the Torah on Simchat Torah has the dynamic potential to encourage or inspire us to adhere to, learn more about, or even just open the actual scroll more frequently. This holiday was a later invention by the rabbis[1] when our […]
Friday, September 28, 2023 – י״ד תִּשְׁרֵי תשפ”ד The Rabbis of the Talmud had a saying when there was not a clear or obvious halakhic ruling one way or another. They would employ this Aramaic adage: “פוּק חָזִי מַאי עַמָא דָבַר” (Puk Hazei Mai Ama Davar) – roughly translated “Go out and see what the […]
September 22, 2023 – ז׳ תִשְׁרֵי תשפ”ד אַתֶּ֨ם נִצָּבִ֤ים הַיּוֹם֙ כֻּלְּכֶ֔ם לִפְנֵ֖י יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֑ם רָאשֵׁיכֶ֣ם שִׁבְטֵיכֶ֗ם זִקְנֵיכֶם֙ וְשֹׁ֣טְרֵיכֶ֔ם כֹּ֖ל אִ֥ישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ טַפְּכֶ֣ם נְשֵׁיכֶ֔ם וְגֵ֣רְךָ֔ אֲשֶׁ֖ר בְּקֶ֣רֶב מַחֲנֶ֑יךָ מֵחֹטֵ֣ב עֵצֶ֔יךָ עַ֖ד שֹׁאֵ֥ב מֵימֶֽיךָ׃ (דברים כט:ט-י) “You stand this day, all of you, before your God יהוה —your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials, every householder […]
September 14, 2023 – כ״ח אֱלוּל “תְּכלַּהֶ שָׁנהָ וקְִללְוֹתֶיהָ, תָּחֵל שָׁנהָ וּברְִכוֹתֶיהָ” “Let the old year and its curses end; let the new year and its blessings begin.” There is no question that 5783 has been a challenging year, a year of drama and trauma, a year of anger and activism, of insight and […]
September 8, 2023 – כ״ב אֱלוּל Thirty years ago, the world watched as archenemies did the unthinkable – the meticulously choreographed photo-op in the Rose Garden of the White House lawn between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shaking hands after decades of rivalry, violence, and enmity. It was a moment of hope despite its surrounding […]
September 1, 2023 – ט״ו אֱלוּל תשפ”ג Each of us has a ‘where-were-you-when?’ moment. For my parents’ generation, many vividly remember the assassination of JFK in 1963, the assassination of Dr. King in 1968, and the historic landing on the moon in 1969 (and we could list many more). For me, and many in my […]