Five days before this Erev Shabbat, summer time began with the solstice; the perfect balance of day time and night time. Erev Shabbat Korakh is the 103rd day of Coronavirus Time. We don’t yet know what that balance will be. Thursday night Portland saw the thirtieth day of street demonstrations, among the street gatherings that … Continue reading
Shabbat Shelakh L’kha: Trust or Fail
In these days of many kinds of prayers, let us consider the nature of Jewish prayer. Jews pray in highly specific ways, teaching us by way of this mindfulness practice a Jewish ethics of existence. The first kind of prayer we see demonstrated in our siddur, our makhzor and any other kind of prayer compilation … Continue reading
Shabbat Naso: Lift Every Face
We have passed thirteen weeks of social isolation now; a most disconsolate tally, longer than our Sefirat haOmer count and much more uncertain. We try to remain patient, and struggle to contain our fears of contagion into vessels of reasonable size. Shabbat comes again, once more without the chance of seeing our Torah in our … Continue reading
Shabbat Shavuot: community – a healing of spiritual exile
The mystical doctrine of the sefirot clearly shows that we are all connected. We just don’t always sense it. We spend our life learning through experience and observation that, contrary to the popular American slogan, we are not really “rugged individuals”, solitarily in control of our own fate. First we learn that others will tell … Continue reading
Shabbat BaMidbar: Now It Gets Scary
Have you begun to ration your news consumption yet? Many of us are finding it the only way to get through a week in these strange and stressful times. Just scanning headlines can feel as if one is absorbing blow after blow of disappointment, concern, anger, and yes, of fear. One source of guidance – … Continue reading
Shabbat BeHar-BeHukkotai: The Torah of Tokhekhah
COVIDלֹֽא־תִשְׂנָ֥א אֶת־אָחִ֖יךָ בִּלְבָבֶ֑ךָ הוֹכֵ֤חַ תּוֹכִ֙יחַ֙ אֶת־עֲמִיתֶ֔ךָ וְלֹא־תִשָּׂ֥א עָלָ֖יו חֵֽטְא׃ You shall not hate your neighbor in your heart. Reprove your neighbor, but incur no guilt because of them. – VaYikra 19.17 On this Shabbat we come to the end of the book VaYikra, Leviticus, and we are confronted by a difficult section of the Torah … Continue reading
