Rabbi Marc J. Rosenstein

Rabbi Marc J. Rosenstein made aliyahaliyahעֲלִיָּה"Going up." The honor of being called to recite the blessings before and after the Torah reading. Also refers to immigration to Israel, to "make aliyah" to Israel; plural: aliyot. Lit. "Ascent." to Moshav Shorashim in the Galilee in 1990. For 20 years, he directed a nonprofit promoting pluralism and Jewish-Arab cooperation, and from 2009-2015 he served as head of the Israeli Rabbinical Program at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. His book on the struggle to define a Jewish state, Contested Utopia: Jewish Dreams and Israeli Realities, has just been published by the Jewish Publication Society. Rabbi Rosenstein's first visit to Israel was a high school student in the first cohort of URJ Heller High, formerly NFTY-EIE, in 1962.

Galilee Diary: Leaving the desert behind

Rabbi Marc J. Rosenstein
We learn in chapter 5 of Joshua that while the generation of the Exodus had been circumcised in Egypt, their children and grandchildren born in the desert had not been. And since only the circumcised may eat of the Passover sacrifice, it seems that this ritual too was not maintained during the forty years in the desert. Anyway, we couldn't have eaten matzah in the desert as we had no grain - only manna.
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Galilee Diary: Remembering Amalek

Rabbi Marc J. Rosenstein
Haman, according to the Scroll of Esther, was a member of the tribe of Amalek. Thus, we learn the consequences of disregarding the Torah commandment to wipe out the memory of Amalek - as long as they are allowed to continue to exist, they remain a threat, the enemy who for no rational reason constantly plots our destruction. And we read the above passage on the Shabbat before Purim every year,
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