Tradition! (Toldot)
Tradition! It probably will come as no surprise that I love the musical “Fiddler on the Roof.” I don’t remember the first time I saw it; it has always been part of my life. I have seen the movie dozens…
Rabbi Blumenthal
Not in Heaven (Selichot)
Not in Heaven Imagine yourself in the late 60’s. Not the 1960’s, the actual 60’s – the early Rabbinic period in ancient Israel. There was an argument underway at the Beit Midrash. Rabbi Eliezer was pinned against all of his…
Five Stages of Grief (Nitzavim-Vayeilekh)
Five Stages of Grief This morning in our Torah, we read as God told Moses that the time has come for him to die. Moses knew that this was coming. God had already told him that he would not enter…
Hard for Me to Say I’m Sorry (Rosh Hashanah)
Hard for Me to Say I’m Sorry There is a commercial being shown on television right now that I really enjoy. A man is sitting at a diner when he gets a call on his iPhone. He answers the phone…
Yom Yerushalayim — Behar Behukotai 2012
This morning we closed the book of Vayikra-Leviticus. For the past two months our Torah reading has come from this book, much of it containing what is referred to as the “Holiness Code,” which focuses on what it meant for…