Bekhukotai: What Do We Want From God?
The yearly Torah-reading cycle is a beautiful thing. Every week, when I look at the parashah for the upcoming Shabbat, I see something I hadn’t noticed before. I also the same words year-after-year, but...
Author: Rabbi Elkodsi
Behar: Our Bodies, Ourselves, Our Land
This Shabbat we read parashat Behar, “on the mountain,” and from that mountain–Sinai–God gave Moses the commandments regarding Shmita and Yovel, the sabbatical and jubilee years, where the land was to lie fallow, not...
Kedoshim: How Are We Holy?
What does it mean to be kadosh, “holy,” or “sanctified”? I always used to think it meant “elevated,” or somehow, “better than” something or someone else. Dictionary.com would certainly have you believe that, but...
Achare Mot: “I Can Do It Myself!”
Photo credit: Flickr.com, Kenny Holston, Whiteman fitness center Years ago Joan Collins did a commercial for Jack LaLane Fitness Centers. She asked her butler to bring her her shoes and gym bag. When he...
Life: The Luck Of The Draw?
Image credit: pnging.com A few weeks ago, towards the end of Talmud Tractate Megilla, I wrote about various sages in the Talmud who lived to “old age,” whatever that meant 2,000 years ago, and...
Vayechi: Spiritual Support For The Dying
Photo credit: D-Gernz on Flickr This week’s Torah reading, Vayechi, begins by telling us that our patriarch Jacob, “lived 17 years in the land of Egypt,” once he had been reunited with his beloved...
Vayetze: 50 Years Later
Mark Chagall, “Jacob’s Dream, 1966 This Shabbat marks 50 years since I read the haftarah for Vayetze at my Friday night bat mitzvah at Congregation B’nai Torah in Trumbull, CT. Where has the time...
Toldot: Because Labels Are For Cans
When I was growing up, perhaps in middle or high school, I remember having conversations with my friends about how we would never bring children into a world that was so messed up; we...
Vayera: Putting God On Hold
This week’s Torah reading, Vayera, opens with: Vayera ay-lav Ado-nai bay-lonay Mamray v’hu yoshev petakh ha-ohel b’khom hayom, “And God appeared to him (Abraham) by the groves of Mamre; he was sitting at the...
Ted Lasso’s Lech Lecha Moments
The second season of Ted Lasso, Apple TV’s award-winning TV show, finished last week, and I’m left with so many questions about what’s going to happen next season! If you haven’t been watching, Ted...
