Why didn’t Mordecai bow down to Haman? After all, that is how the whole megilah gets started, right? Well not quite! But it is Mordecai’s act of disobedience and disrespect that motivates Haman’s desire to destroy the Jews of Shushan. When the other men in King Ahashueros’ court asked Mordecai why he refused to bow before Haman, all Mordecai told them was that he was a Jew.   Why didn’t Mordecai bow down to Haman? Perhaps he felt that, as a Jew, it was not... Read More

From the first parashah in the book of Shemot, of Exodus, Moses appears or is mentioned in every single parashah until the very last verses of the Torah.  He is written in to every account, every interaction, and every command.  Except for this week in Parshat Tetzaveh.  This is the only week from the moment Moses is born until the moment he records the story of his own death that Moses neither appears nor is mentioned. The Sages suggest two reasons for this... Read More

On 4 occasions the Torah tells us to teach our children and instruct them in the path of Judaism.  Each of the four passages has a direct connection with Pesach.  Three of the four are found in this week’s parshah, the fourth later in Devarim.  They are tied to what we know famously from the hagaddah, ve higadata le vinkha ba yom ha hu, you shall tell your son on that day, saying it is because of this which God did for me when he brought me out of Egypt.” (Exodus... Read More

This week a hero is born, a savior, you might say. We read the very beginning of the Book of Shemot and are told of the birth of Moses, a baby so beautiful that his mother hides him from sight for three months. And when she can no longer hide him, she puts him into a wicker basket and leaves him among the reeds by the bank of the Nile River.  But no woman who has spent nine months waiting for the birth of a child would just leave him unaccompanied.  Va tay... Read More

How do you measure the growth of a person? We talk a lot about growth – professional, personal. We hold it out as a value as a goal, something we strive for. Certainly for ourselves, as parents, we look to see it in our children, as teachers we work towards it in our students. It’s often easier to see it in others than to see it in ourselves. In the Joseph narrative that occupies the end of the book of Genesis, it is Joseph’s growth which most often engages... Read More

How do you light your hanukkiyah? The Talmud in tractate Shabbat records four traditions of how to light a hanukkiyah: The mitzvah of Hanukkah is one light for a man and his household. The zealous kindle a light for each member of the household. Beit Shammai maintain: On the first day eight lights are lit and thereafter they are gradually reduced. Beit Hillel say: On the first day one is lit and thereafter they are progressively increased. Those... Read More

God and Abraham stood together on the precipice.  Both looking out on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  God had decided to destroy the cities and had shared with Abraham His intentions.  Together they went down, and stood, and tried to determine if the people in those towns had acted according to the outcry that had reached all the way up to God. And together they had to decide who to save. “Will you sweep away the innocent along with the guilty?” Abraham... Read More

Our first full week, our first regular week, after the holidays. It is time for us, like Noah, to open a window as we readjust to our new reality. Noah was a simple man, despite being unusual in his generation. A family man, without even a trade at the beginning of his life, he was dedicated to his family and tried to keep himself and them on a moral path, a path that was sometimes different from those around him.  So he was chosen to build an ark, to be a... Read More

On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we stay inside our cocoons of home and synagogue.  Even the half hour outside at Tashlikh or during the break between musaf and study sessions doesn’t take us more than few blocks beyond our comfortable places inside.  Now Sukkot arrives and it takes us way beyond our comfort zone. Or rather it establishes a new comfort zone.  We re-enter the world around us in a way that is entirely appropriate after spending so many days inside... Read More

So it begins.  With a plaintive melody and a nostalgic blast Elul enters once again.  It has been a year since we last heard the mournful melodies of the High Holidays and the piercing blast of the shofar.  On Wednesday August 9 the new month of Elul began and with it our intensive preparation for the High Holidays.  The Maharal of Prague (Rabbi Judah Loew 1520 – 1609) used to say, “All the month of Elul, before eating and sleeping, a person should look into... Read More