Teshuvah in a Plague
You must search and search until you find some good point within you to give you new life and happiness. When you discover the good that is still inside you, you literally swing the scales from guilt to merit…
You must search and search until you find some good point within you to give you new life and happiness. When you discover the good that is still inside you, you literally swing the scales from guilt to merit…
This verse expresses a fundamental axiom about the measure of our dedication to God, as told by the prophet Samuel, “listening to God is better than making sacrifices to Him.”
Please follow the link below to read 5 different commentaries on this week’s parashah by Rabbi Eva Robbins, Rabbi Gershon Schusterman, Rabbi Chaim Tureff, Aliza Lipkin, and Miriam Yerushalmi
In January 2020 BC (before COVID) Rabbi Bouskila last met with Israeli author A. B. Yehoshua before his passing on June 14. Rabbi Bouskila recounts his history with the author, including discussions on the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, or the Israel-Diaspora divide.
This Shabbat is the second Shabbat of consolation, following Tisha B’Av. We chant from Isaiah 49:14-51:3, wherein the prophet addresses the mourning for the destruction of Zion and concludes with hope for divine comfort.
Hazzan Daniel Friedman & Cantor Jacqueline Rafii recorded a beautiful rendition of the Chassidic Kaddish
In The Jewish Educator, Hazzan Daniel Friedman published the article “A New Pedagogy for Teaching Torah Trope Utilizing Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theories: Introduction to a Torah Trope Curriculum for Ages 2 to 92”. In this article he asks the question: “How can I engage students of trope beyond the traditional years prior to their Bar/Bat Mitzvah or as an adjunct to an adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah course?
Well-being is within our reach, although many us of may feel unfulfilled or alone. The need to inflict misery is in our nature, yet we can learn from our teachings. We study the narratives of the Golden Calf and the Sin of the Spies to remind ourselves of our moral transgressions. However, sin also includes acting against our authentic nature.
At the beginning of the book of Devarim, Moses reviews the history of the Israelites’ experience in the wilderness, starting with the appointment of leaders throughout the people, heads of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. He continues:
Tradition encourages our memories to be jogged as we enter into the new month of Av, laden with historic calamities, particularly the ones most pivotal and strikingly cataclysmic: The destruction of the holy temples, the first in 586 BCE and the second in 70 CE. The rabbis’ integration of a formal grief tradition helps us to prepare both mentally and spiritually for the High Holy Days.