Rabbi's Message

It was wonderful to see many of you on Rosh Hashanah (and to welcome others via our live streamed services). What a wonderful way to enter the new year of 5784; together as a TBS community!  I hope you had a meaningful and enjoyable holiday.

This week, we are in the middle of Aseret Yemei Teshuvah, the Ten Days of Repentance.  The ten days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur are a special time for reflection and...Read more...

We are now firmly in the Hebrew month of Elul, and Rosh Hashanah is just a little over two weeks away. Elul is a time for reflection and introspection. It is a month for study and for preparing our hearts, bodies, and minds for the High Holy Days.  It is a time for heshbon ha-nefesh, soul accounting. It is a time in which we challenge ourselves each day to discover and to grow. 

A story is told of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of...Read more...

Parashat Shoftim contains the well-known words Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof – “Justice, Justice, You Shall Pursue.”  The Hebrew word used here for ”justice,” Tzedek, can also mean “righteousness” or “fairness.”  This is why it is also the root of the word Tzedakah.  When we give tzedakah to support people in need or a cause or an organization that we believe in, it is more than act of charity. It is an expression of...Read more...

What does God want from me? This is a question that I often find myself asking when confronted with difficult situations. When there is no clear "right" answer, how do we still act like a mentsch? Our Torah reading this week, Ekev, asks this same question. "And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you?" Thankfully, it also gives us an answer: "Only this: revere the Lord your God, to walk only in His paths, to love Him, and to...Read more...

Yesterday was Rosh Hodesh as we began the new month of Av. The Talmud teaches: Mi’shenihnas av mema'atin b’simha - when we enter the month of Av, our joy is diminished.  As Av enters, we begin a period known as the Nine Days, a period of mourning on the Jewish calendar that culminate with Tisha B’Av (the 9th of Av), the saddest day on our Jewish calendar.  Tisha B’Av solemnly marks many of the tragedies and calamities that...Read more...

Today, 17th day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, is a minor fast day (from dawn to dusk) which commemorates the breach of the walls of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Second Temple.  The 17th of Tammuz also marks the beginning of the three-week quasi mourning period leading up to the most solemn day of the Jewish year, Tisha B’Av (a major fast day—from dusk to dusk).  The three weeks beginning with the 17th of Tammuz and...Read more...

We are in graduation season!  Last week we celebrated wonderful moving up ceremonies for students in our Eric B. Jacobs Early Childhood Education Center.  Our students beautifully sang tefillot (prayers) and songs that demonstrated how much they learned so far at TBS.  Last night, I attended the commencement ceremony for the 8th graders at Kellman Brown Academy, and again felt proud at seeing all they have...Read more...

This Shabbat we read parashat Naso, which include one of the most well-known and ancient blessings in Judaism. God instructs the kohanim, the priests, to bless the people Israel with these words: 

Today we give this blessing to children...Read more...

This Shabbat we begin the book of BaMidbar, Numbers.  It opens with a pair of censuses, as b’nai Yisrael prepare to set out from Mount Sinai, where they are still encamped.  Each tribe is counted and given its position.  But the tribe of Levi, whose charge is to tend to the mishkan, tabernacle, is given additional tasks.  Joseph’s son Levi had three sons:  Gershon, Kohat, and Merari.  Each became the head of...Read more...

Each week in this column we talk Torah, but rarely to we talk about Torahs.  What I mean is talking about the actual Torah scrolls that we read from at TBS.  In our Torah vault live 18 Torahs.  A few of them are no longer kosher, and we use some of those for teaching.  Most of them, however, we use throughout the year.  We have Torah scrolls that survived the Holocaust, and scroll that we wrote as a congregation about...Read more...

We are in the midst of what have been called the new High Holy Days of Israel.  This last Tuesday we marked Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and next Tuesday and Wednesday are Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel’s Memorial Day and Independence Day.  These days cause us to reflect on two of the most significant events in Jewish history.  During the Holocaust one third of the world’s Jewish population was wiped...Read more...

The holiday of Passover has always been special to me.  Not because my Hebrew name is Pesah Barukh, but rather because of the special childhood memories that I have of celebrating the holiday with my family.  It is these memories and feelings of gratitude and love for family and tradition that I hope to recreate now, each year, for my children.  Passover is the ultimate family holiday; a very special time of...Read more...

This morning at Kellman Brown Academy, the first grade students celebrated their Hag HaSiddur (a ceremony in which they received their first prayerbook).  I watched with pride and tears of joy as my twins, Meyer and Gavi, along with their classmates, spoke in Hebrew, sang songs, danced, and led numerous tefillot (prayers).  One of the songs they sang focused on verse we recite during...Read more...