Rabbi’s Torah Commentary

“God wants you to …” What a strange concept. With my human limitations, how can I possibly “know” what God wants? One cannot define the wants or needs of someone without knowing who that someone is. Even (and maybe especially) in religious sectarianism, one can only define what that religion’s take is on some aspect […]

A member of my “Experienced Adult” (avoid using the term “seniors”) Tuesday morning class keeps asking me, “If this stuff (Torah) is not real, why do we waste our time studying it?” Every week (often twice because of Shabbat mornings), I try to give him examples of how text leads us to meaningful conversations and […]

We ended last week’s Torah portion on a conundrum. Abraham and Isaac went up the mountain together – the Mountain at which God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham comes down alone. The sages are all across the map as to what happened to Isaac. Some will argue that he died and subsequently experienced resurrection. […]

This weekend, Monmouth Reform Temple celebrates its 60th anniversary. A lot has happened in 60 years. This year is also my 60th trip around the sun. Einstein said that coincidence is only God’s way of remaining anonymous, so I have spent some time this year thinking about the confluence of these “coincident” happenings. My first thoughts dealt […]

Lech l’cha – get up and go – journey. Given my last week-plus, to return from my journey to read a command to take off again is quite coincidental. After all, I have quipped that I need a vacation to get over everyone else’s vacation. Of course, we all know that Einstein said that coincidence […]

This will be short and sweet. The Noah start breeds tons of commentary. One sees Noah and the ark on walls of nurseries all over the world. Some argue about how righteous Noah was or was not; one can read the story to make him a hero or a thoughtless mongrel. For me, I cannot […]

I remember Harry Chapin’s song, “Flowers are Red.” For those who do not remember it, a child goes to school and when the time for art comes, he starts painting flowers of every kind. “There are so many colors in the rainbow; so many colors in the morning sun; so many colors in a flower; […]

“V’chititu charvotam l’itim v’chinatotaehem l’mazmerot. Lo yisa goy el goy cherev, v’lo yilmadu od milchamah.” The prophets Isaiah (2:4) and Micah (4:3) spoke, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Nation shall not lift […]

The sages teach us that, at any given point in time, the world stands firm because of the righteousness of 36 people. We call them “Lamed-vavniks” because the two Hebrew letters lamed (30)and vav (6) represent the number 36. 18 is the numerical representation of the Hebrew letters khet (8) and yod (10). It happens […]

A journalist assigned to the Jerusalem bureau takes an apartment overlooking the Wailing Wall. Every day when she looks out, she sees an old Jewish man praying vigorously. So the journalist goes down and introduces herself to the old man. She asks, “You come every day to the wall. How long have you done that, […]