Last week we celebrated with a gifted and passionate group of TRS teens as they completed their confirmation year. The strength of their connection to our community is a great example for us to remember as we speed towards summer and begin to head in different directions. In the Torah portion of the week, B’haalot’cha, Continue Reading »
Growing up attending the Episcopal school where my mother taught, I heard the same benediction in my school’s chapel every week from Kindergarten through senior year: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make HIS face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up HIS Continue Reading »
If I asked you to name the three most important holidays in Judaism after the High Holy Days, you might list Passover, Sukkot, and Chanukah. You would be two for three! Chanukah is a minor festival and not even in the Torah. This weekend (Sunday evening) we celebrate one of the major festivals in the Continue Reading »
Parshat Emor contains, among other things, instructions specific to the priests. One of the lasting images in this portion is of several lamps that sat inside the Tabernacle, just outside the Holy of Holies where only the High Priests could go. Today, these lamps are symbolized by a single lamp above the ark in every Continue Reading »
This week is one of the few where we read two Torah portions over one Shabbat. In years that are not leap years, we double up on a number of Parshiot. Our next leap year will be in 5787 (2 years away) when each Shabbat will have a single Torah portion. Although there is a Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, It’s been a rollercoaster ride for most of our members who work in the federal government or are contractors. These last 100+ days have been trying, to say the least. Many of you are in turmoil, many have lost your positions or contracts, and many are going to work every day still unsure Continue Reading »
Parshat Sh’mini signifies very beginning of Jewish practice. The Tabernacle is finished and ready for its first ceremony. As part of their ordination, the priests have been confined to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting for seven days. On yom hash’mini, the eighth day, they finally offer their first sacrifice. Then, they and the Continue Reading »
As we have just passed the halfway point of our observance of the Passover, many of us are still feeling connected to the themes presented in the Haggadah, the ideas and theology of the Seder. For me this year, the image of Egypt looms large. There I see a power-hungry Pharaoh who rejects God’s ideas Continue Reading »
“In every generation, each person is obligated to see themselves as though they had come out of Egypt.” Each year, these words from the Passover Haggadah hit a little differently. This year, I have been thinking a lot about something like this: what does it mean to remember the triumphant moments in the Exodus story, Continue Reading »
This is crazy: I became a Bar Mitzvah 50 years ago, reading this week’s Parsha: Vayikra, the beginning of the Book of Leviticus. I can’t even fathom that amount of time that has passed. I’m sure many of you reading this can understand of which I speak. Time just passes by so quickly. I don’t Continue Reading »
