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Shabbat Weekly Dvar Torah

Your People Shall Be My People: Thoughts on Shavuot

Jun 7, 2024

Your People Shall Be My People: Thoughts on Shavuot

This upcoming Tuesday evening, we will welcome the holiday of Shavuot. Shavuot is the second of Judaism’s three pilgrimage festivals, the Shalosh Regalim, which include Pessach, Shavuot, and Sukkot. In ancient Israel, all three were agricultural festivals celebrated by pilgrimages to Jerusalem, feasts, thanksgiving sacrifices, and offerings of bikkurim (first fruits) to the Temple.
Living Purposefully

May 31, 2024

Living Purposefully

This week’s Dvar Torah on Parsha Bechukotai was written by Anita Kurzer Givner, CAJE’s outgoing chair of the Leo Martin March of the Living Committee and delivered to the Committee this week. We thank her for her outstanding service to our community!
Do Jews Own the Land of Israel?

May 24, 2024

Do Jews Own the Land of Israel?

Israel’s legendary Foreign Minister Abba Eban once stood at the podium of the United Nations general assembly with a Bible in his hand, declaring before the whole world that the Jewish people’s title deed to the Land of Israel is over 3,000 years old. Rabbi Menachem Froman of blessed memory disagreed… “The Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel” has been a longstanding slogan of Religious Zionism, but Rav Menachem, settler leader that he was, never tired of telling all who would listen that the Land of Israel does not belong to the People of Israel. On the contrary, the People of Israel belong to the Land of Israel.
STRUGGLING TO CELEBRATE

May 17, 2024

STRUGGLING TO CELEBRATE

Anyone who feels very connected to Israel and has been following the cultural zeitgeist there knows that Yom Haatzmaut was a complicated day for many people — perhaps you as well. How do we celebrate Israel when so many are still held hostage (we hope they are alive) and so many soldiers and civilians are recently deceased due to the war with Hamas? Many Israelis struggled with what to do-- barbecue and go to the beach and have a “fun” day while so many are suffering?
Parashat Kedoshim: RuPaul Was Right!

May 10, 2024

Parashat Kedoshim: RuPaul Was Right!

This week’s Parsha Kedoshim, which focuses on moral and ethical behavior, came exactly at the right time as we embark into this post-October 7th world. Kedoshim, often referred to as the “Holiness Code,” highlights the central importance of holiness and ethical living in Jewish tradition. It emphasizes that holiness is not confined to ritual observance but extends to all aspects of life, including interpersonal relationships, business dealings, and moral conduct.
Dear Student Protesters...

May 3, 2024

Dear Student Protesters...

This week’s Torah portion is Acharei Mot, which describes the process of placing the sins of the community on a goat that gets sent into the wilderness on Yom Kippur. This goat was later known in English as a “scapegoat.” Anyone watching the student protests happening on college campuses around the county (among many other protests outside of campuses) can see that Zionists and the State of Israel are being scapegoated for the entire Middle East conflict and for many other perceived evils in the world.
The 'High Holy Days' of Spring

Apr 26, 2024

The 'High Holy Days' of Spring

The time from Passover to Shavuot is like another ‘High Holy Days’ Season. One reason is the sheer number of holidays that parallels the Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemeni Atzeret/Simchat Torah ‘deluge’ of September/October. We have Pesach, Yom HaShoah, Yom HaAtzma’ut, Lag BaOmer and Shavuot all in a seven-week period. The spring holidays are of tremendous historical meaning and very intense (the ridding of chametz/leavened products), the Seder, Holocaust memorials and the intense emotion of Israeli Independence Day, while ending with the quiet and calm of study on Shavuot.
We All Need to Leave Egypt Over and Over Again

Apr 19, 2024

We All Need to Leave Egypt Over and Over Again

The Exodus is mentioned in the weekly celebration of Shabbat in the words of the Kiddush, in the daily ritual of prayer in the siddur following the Shema/V’ahavta (in the Geula prayer when we sing Mi Chamocha), in the reasons for the custom of wearing tefillin and tallit, as well as in the ethical mandate not to oppress the stranger, remembering that we were once strangers in the land of Egypt, which is mentioned over 36 times in the Torah.
As If We Personally Had Come Out of Egypt

Apr 12, 2024

As If We Personally Had Come Out of Egypt

I went into a ladies’ room last fall and saw a ghost. I had just arrived at a synagogue in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to give a lecture on All Other Nights, my novel about Jewish spies during the Civil War. As I hurried to the restroom before greeting my hosts, I opened the door and stopped short. In the mirror, next to my 21st-century reflection, was a woman wearing a 19th-century corset and petticoats, struggling to pull a calico dress over her hoop skirts.
A Reform Rabbi Chooses to Keep Kosher

Apr 5, 2024

A Reform Rabbi Chooses to Keep Kosher

This week's Parashat Shemini contains a long exposition of the laws of kashrut, a practice I did not grow up observing. Though my father (z”l) loved tradition in general, he was the first one in his family to have a non-kosher home, saying: "We're American! What is this craziness? We should eat like Americans!" Family lore has it that when my great-grandmother (his grandmother) came to visit my parent’s new home in the suburbs, she was so horrified to find that the kitchen wasn’t kosher, she would only eat a piece of cold lettuce, on the back porch, on a paper plate, in the middle of a Boston winter!