December 2020 – Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone

Shabbat Miketz: Survival Tip for 2020 – Remember Who You Are

s/he was bullied by siblings. s/he was terrorized by being thrown in a pit and ignored. s/he was sold into slavery in a strange society. s/he knew neither the language nor the customs. s/he was accused of crime s/he had not committed. s/he was thrown in a dungeon and forgotten. In parashat Miketz, Joseph modelsContinue reading “Shabbat Miketz: Survival Tip for 2020 – Remember Who You Are”

Letter to a Young Jew

I’m thrilled that you got in touch to ask me about your discomfort with the prayer for Israel we did in the shul during High Holy Days. I’m also very happy to hear that you are finding ways to express your sense of Jewish identity in resistance to the evils of our day. Jews, withContinue reading “Letter to a Young Jew”

Shabbat VaYeshev: Justice by the Light of the Hanukkah Menorah

You may very well be wrong in your first impression – Love, Tamar In the second year of the Triennial Cycle of Torah reading, we find that the focus of the parashat hashavua (“Torah reading of the week”) is the story of Tamar in Bereshit, also called Genesis, in chapter 38. After the strange silence imposed upon Dinah inContinue reading “Shabbat VaYeshev: Justice by the Light of the Hanukkah Menorah”

Shabbat VaYishlakh: Becoming Whole By Becoming Oneself

There’s a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in – Leonard Cohen ז״ל In this week’s parashah, the eponymous ancestor of the People of Israel is given the name Israel. The deceiving, conniving, too smart by half Jacob has apparently achieved some kind of transition. The people Israel has for two thousandContinue reading “Shabbat VaYishlakh: Becoming Whole By Becoming Oneself”