Putting Elul to Work
Four hundred years of slavery in Egypt, forty years of wandering in the desert: imagine how the legends of the Land of Israel that must have been told.
Transgressions Transformed
In the Bible, much of the legislation transmitted by God to Israel is reassuringly unambiguous. When he seeks to establish God's rules, Moses frequently defines distinct categories into which things are sorted; some are permitted and others are forbidden.
To Influence and To Be Shaped by Another’s Influence
Tolstoy begins Anna Karenina with the following two assertions: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Perhaps this explains why for every one blessing listed in this week's parashah, there are five frightful curses.
Living between Mountains
I live in Los Gatos, California which is on the edge of the Santa Clara Valley.
Receiving in Order to Give
"You stand this day, all of you, before the Eternal your God ... to enter into the covenant of the Eternal your God ..." (Deuteronomy 29:9-11). Parashat Nitzavim is a retelling of the exchange of giving and receiving that took place at Mount Sinai.
Nitzavim: The Mitzvah of Choosing
This week's Torah portion, Nitzavim, or large sections of it, are well-known in Reform congregations. On Yom Kippur morning, we read Deuteronomy 29:9-14 and 30:11-20, the opening and concluding paragraphs of Nitzavim.
Fear and Awe
A World of Words
Back at the Burning Bush, God commands Moses to return to Egypt, to go before Pharaoh and deliver God's message: "Let us go...to sacrifice to the Eternal our God" (Exodus 3:18).
Haazinu: Don’t Forget to Remember
We will gather on Yom Kippur to recite Yizkor, our prayer of memory for our loved ones who have died. The Jewish value of "memory" pervades our lives, our sacred story, and this time in our Jewish calendar year.