נַחֲמ֥וּ נַחֲמ֖וּ עַמִּ֑י יֹאמַ֖ר אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶֽם Nakhamu, nakhamu ami yomar Eloheykhem “Be consoled, my people, says your G*d” – Isaiah 40.1 Last Saturday night we commemorated Tisha B’Av, a date on which we remember not only the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and our two-thousand year homelessness that followed. Jewish tradition also marks the 9th dayContinue reading “Shabbat Nakhamu: The Courage to be Consoled”
Monthly Archives: July 2021
Shabbat Hazon: What We Have Done, and What We Must Learn
It is not up to you to finish the work, but you are not excused from your part in it – Pirke Avot We begin our immersion into the Book of Devarim, Deuteronomy, this week. The first parashah of this book is always the prescribed learning for the Shabbat immediately preceding Tisha B’Av. Tisha B’Av,Continue reading “Shabbat Hazon: What We Have Done, and What We Must Learn”
Shabbat Matot-Masei: Neither Here Nor There
“Not all who wander are lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring We’ve left the place we knew, the good and the bad of it, and now we don’t know where we are. That is as true of us as it was of our ancestors, who, having left Egypt, wandered in a wildernessContinue reading “Shabbat Matot-Masei: Neither Here Nor There”
my heart is in the east and I am in the uttermost west
During dark times, we who are the Jewish community are summoned to kindle light. In solidarity with all of us who watch the violence exploding in Palestine and Israel, and can do nothing but worry from afar, I offer my thoughts as you consider your own: My closest family and my closest cousins are fightingContinue reading “my heart is in the east and I am in the uttermost west”
Shabbat Pinkhas: The Three Weeks
חָנֵּנִי ה’ כִּי אֻמְלַל אָנִי רְפָאֵנִי ה’ כִּי נִבְהֲלוּ עֲצָמָי וְנַפְשִׁי נִבְהֲלָה מְאֹד ואת ה’ עַד מָתָי Heal me, for I am very low. I am chaos within. My soul is in very great chaos, and you, HaShem, how long? – Takhanun Today a man will be buried who died in the heat wave thisContinue reading “Shabbat Pinkhas: The Three Weeks”
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 