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Shabbat Weekly Dvar Torah

Math and Fungus

Sep 22, 2023

Math and Fungus

Most of the time, we’re on autopilot. With everything that life throws at us, it has to be that way. So we see things only on a superficial level as we whizz by. On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we are called to look at life differently. We are encouraged to turn off the autopilot. We stop, think and analyze. We admit, regret and fix.
The CAJE Board & Staff Wish You and Your Family ShanaTova u’Metuka... A Sweet and Blessed New Year!

Sep 14, 2023

The Call of the Shofar

As the only communal Jewish organization in Miami striving to improve the quality of Jewish education at every level, CAJE is aware, prepared and ready to act on the voice calling us to keep pushing for greater excellence, for further transformation, for lasting impact on behalf of the Jewish people.
Bring Your Full Self

Sep 8, 2023

Bring Your Full Self

The Slonimer Rebbe, from a volume called, Mayanot Netzach, teaches that, “You stand before God this day — all of you,” meaning that when we stand before God, the entirety of our lives, the entirety of who we are and what we have done, stands before God.
Blessings Will Come

Sep 1, 2023

Blessings Will Come

The Klausenberger Rebbe was well known for re-settling those of his Chasidim who had survived the Holocaust in and around the Beth Moses Hospital in Brooklyn. So, one morning in 1952 on the Shabbat of Ki Tavo, this week’s Torah portion, I set out from my home to be in the presence of a truly holy man.
When Forgetting Is a Mitzvah

Aug 25, 2023

When Forgetting Is a Mitzvah

This week we concentrate on one of the many mitzvot in the parsha (Ki Teitzei), one that is easily overlooked but that contains a monumental life lesson. Torah is mostly concerned with remembering: Remembering our Exodus from Egypt, remembering the merit of our forefathers… Memory is an integral feature of our faith because it grounds us by constantly reminding us from whence we came and where we are headed. There is, however, one mitzvah that is the antithesis of remembering…
Unfinished Business

Aug 18, 2023

Unfinished Business

There are several very powerful suggestions in Parshat Shoftim as to precisely what it is we should be looking for during the month of Elul as we turn toward the gates of the soul in preparation for Teshuvah / Returning. These suggestions come, oddly enough, in the laws of war...
Forgiveness of Debts

Aug 11, 2023

Forgiveness of Debts

The new month of Elul [this coming Wednesday night] famously opens us to a time of renewed intimacy. As we gear up for the Yamim Noraim, the holiest days of the year [known as the High Holy Days], we enter into the holy of holies of the Jewish heart.
Intentional Vulnerability

Aug 4, 2023

Intentional Vulnerability

“Circumcise the foreskin of your heart and stiffen your necks no more,” implores Moses (Deut. 10:16), attempting to convince the Israelites to open themselves up — and cleave to the God who so passionately, and often inexplicably, loves them… In its exhortation to lay naked one’s heart and make supple one’s throat, it asks us to lower our defenses, to surrender, to make the leap of faith that is absolutely necessary to live a fully realized and awakened existence.
You Can Go the Distance – But Don't

Jul 28, 2023

You Can Go the Distance – But Don't

“Within the limits of the law” is the principle referred to by the rabbis of the Talmud as Lifnim meshurat hadin and it is deployed by the Talmud to describe cases when the Sages, the masters of Jewish law, stop short of deploying the full measure of their power and don’t prescribe the entirety of what the law would entitle in the situation.
The Shelter of Shabbat

Jul 21, 2023

The Shelter of Shabbat

The morning I wrote this... In the eastern sky there was the tiniest sliver of the crescent moon, just rising, heart-breakingly beautiful. It was just a few days before the month of Av began, with that same crescent moon setting in the west. We are heading towards the end of the Three Weeks, the period between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av, the season of loss and horror in our mythic history.