Rabbi’s Torah Commentary

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the unsung heroes in history. The people behind the scenes who quietly do the work of making the great people look even better. There is still one role in life harder to play than the “behind the scenes” hero – it is the forgotten one. People in the […]

I want to share a story about a dog. Bing, the dog of war, parachuted into France with his sniper handler to become a D-Day hero. Bing was one of the first dogs to be parachuted and dropped behind enemy lines alongside British paratroopers. He landed on Normandy to sniff out trouble before troops entered […]

I begin every funeral asking, “Is there anyone who would rather not be here today, if it meant not knowing … (the deceased’s name)?” I have never had a hand go up and had someone leave. Through my own loss, I have learned that people don’t leave us. Their hands leave us, but our hearts […]

Lot and his family escape the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham warned them that the city was doomed, and they had to escape. Lot, his wife, and their two daughters got out just before the winds of destruction consumed the cities. Whew! Let’s take a step back. The portion begins as God and angels […]

“I set out on a narrow way many years ago, hoping I would find true love along the broken road. But, I got lost a time or two, wiped my brow, and kept pushing through. I couldn’t see how every sign pointed straight to you.” The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and then Rascal Flatts recorded […]

The Chofetz Chaim focused his rabbinical career on helping us speak better to each other. He wrote extensively about “Lashon Harah – evil speech.” In our American world, slander is the act of telling lies. We see it all the time, and unfortunately, if you are a celebrity, the law is that lies are fair […]

Baruch sh’amar vayah ha-olam baruch hu! Blessed is the one who spoke and the world came into being. According to tradition, God created with speech. No skilled craftsperson, no artisan, no forced labor: the elements responded directly to God’s speech. Certainly a metaphor, but if we look at it in depth, we find that God’s […]

Endings and beginnings – Tonight (Friday night), we will observe the annual ritual of completing the reading cycle from the past year and beginning it for the next. There is no downtime in studying Torah, and in truth, by reading both pieces tonight, the cycle never really ends; it simply renews. We are one year […]

“We interrupt this Torah cycle for this special message for this holiday …” You shall dwell in huts seven days (Exodus 23:42) We find ourselves amid the holiday of Sukkot. As the Earth prepares to sleep for the winter, we harvest our last bounty of the season from its soil. We store it as best […]

We are who we are, only because of those who came before us. How much smarter do our parents become as we get older? My father has been gone 30 plus years. I am amazed at how much smarter he is now than he was when he died. Our ancestors are our backbone; our living […]