Rabbi’s Torah Commentary

As I pay attention to the daily news – or what purports to be news, I fear that the direction of our nation’s discourse will rupture the very fabric that holds us together. We have a constitution under attack. Many of us have spent generations working to enfranchise more and more people into the equitable […]

How tired are we of people holding their hands up, witnessing their prayer to God while in the fervor of worship, who then get in their cars and start screaming and honking their horns at anyone who drives by a different standard than the one that suits the screamer’s quickest path to the next destination? […]

Bamidbar – in the wilderness. We start a new book of the Torah this week. In English, it’s referred to as the “Book of Numbers.” Numbers, because counting the census of military-age men happens several times throughout the book. In Hebrew, it’s “in the wilderness.” Hebrew texts are known by the first significant word in […]

Tonight will be my last Friday night service on the pulpit of Monmouth Reform Temple. I have served here for eight years. We have accomplished a great deal of growth, defined a congregational mission, revamped congregational leadership, and our increased communal visibility has brought us into some wonderful and engaging partnerships. Personally, I have been […]

I remember growing up watching baseball, marveling at the players’ athleticism, power, and speed, making highlight plays seem routine. While I was never a Cubs fan, I enjoyed it when I got to see a Cubs game so that I could sing with Harry Caray, “Take Me Out To the Ball Game!” Many ballparks orchestrated […]

Let’s go back a couple thousand years. We find ourselves standing in the courtyard of the Holy of holies. The sacrificial cult reigns supreme in the life of Judea’s religious population – where we get the name of our tradition – Judaism – the religion of the Judah-ites. The high priest was a politically appointed […]

“Kedoshim tih’yu, ki kadosh Ani – Be holy, because I (God) am holy” What does holy mean? When I was young, I learned stories about Prophet Elijah coming to do good work in the dress of a beggar. Naively, as a young child might, I saw a man dressed that way and asked my Grandma […]

We all know the line, “The devil is in the details.” Sometimes the lessons are obvious – sometimes less so. The rabbis teach us that the most profound teachings come from the most subtle ambiguities. As Moses shares the rules on Yom Kippur and eating meat, we find the following (17:15), “Any person, whether citizen […]

“Why are we here?” This question has plagued philosophers for the length of our existence. We experience birth, life, and then death. What’s the point? We often try to address the conundrum by answering questions tangent to the real problem. We spend our energy debating the value we experience being here. We have no way […]

Tonight, we embark on the annual journey through the story of our people and our story of freedom. As I recall the story of the exodus from Egypt, I hear the screams of slaves under the task master’s whips. I ache over the loss of lives and the human indignations slave masters imposed on the […]