Tag: Rabbi Efrat Zarren-Zohar

Over the centuries, most of humanity responded to the disabled in others ways, by turning their backs to them, preferring to blame them in some ways for their disabilities rather than make the effort to strengthen the human connection that binds each to all.

The name of the parsha is taken from the first important word at the outset of the portion (which is how all parshiot get their name)—Kedoshim Tehiyu/ Be holy! No one is entirely sure what the word Kedusha / Holiness means, but at bare minimum, it implies the elevation of human beings and our actions from animal-like to G!D-like.

The term "scapegoat" was apparently coined by William Tyndale, the first great English Bible translator, and has come to mean "someone whom people blame for their own misfortunes and even for their faults and sins--though the original notion of a scapegoat included the public acknowledgement by the community of its own transgressions."

This week, at the conclusion of Havdalah, we will bid farewell to Shabbat and the festival of Pesach, and begin a new journey, a spiritual ascent to Mt. Sinai. On the second night of Pesach, we began counting the omer, a spiritual exercise, as we prepare to receive the gift of Torah.

One of the more challenging questions about the seder - How do we make it relevant today? Here is one suggestion. Let’s start by discussing a well-known statement found in the Haggadah: “In every generation a person is required to see oneself as if he personally went out of Egypt.” How is it possible to do this? And why is this necessary?

The Pesach seder is an event filled with symbols that have dual and opposite meanings; likewise, there’s a subtext of argumentation. It’s ‘organized’ argumentation - like the Talmud - but built into the Haggadah (the “script’ of the seder) is debate and even conflict among the participants.

When I was 12, a few weeks before my Bat Mitzvah, I went in to meet with one of the rabbis of my synagogue. At the time, the synagogue newsletter included a “pasuk of the week,” a verse from that week’s Torah portion that was particularly interesting or thought provoking. However, as the rabbi confessed to me, the week of my bat mitzvah was to be the end of that custom. He just couldn’t find anything that fit the bill. That week’s parashah? Tazria.

While there is an ocean of difference between pagan Greek myth [of Icarus] and our Torah, often cross-cultural comparisons can be enlightening. Interestingly, the very hubris that motivated Icarus’s downfall is reflected in a different way in this week’s parashah (Shmini) in a story, which has troubled many.

As I write these words, I have just watched a young 44-year-old former comedian in an olive drab t-shirt address the Congress of the United States and indeed the world. It is a Churchillian moment, although he is speaking in Ukrainian, and this young political novice within weeks has not only become the voice of his people but has embodied the consciousness of the world.

One of the main challenges of Jewish education in the twenty-first century is finding relevance in Jewish learning... This week’s Torah portion is Vayikra, the first portion in the book of Vayikra, translated [from Hebrew to Latin] as Leviticus. It discusses aspects of the korbanot or sacrifices that were made in the Tabernacle and later the Temple, but it is hard to find meaning in the detailed ancient practices.

This Shabbat we read Parashat P’kudei, containing the final verses of the Book of Exodus. The Exodus narrative takes us on an incredible journey from bondage in Egypt to the experience of revelation at Sinai and the transformation of the Israelites to a people committed to a life guided by Torah and walking in G!d’s ways.

Every literate Jew knows the word: SHOAH. It’s the Hebrew word for the Holocaust, derived from the biblical word Shoah (שואה), meaning "catastrophe." Most of us, me included, have never heard of the term: Holodomor. According to the History Channel, it’s a combination of the Ukrainian words for “starvation” and “to inflict death,” and is a key event in Ukrainian history.

Jewish education forms the backbone of our communities. We assure the community of vitality and endurance through the Hebrew studies of our children, the outreach programs for those considering conversion, and the continuing education programs for other seeking adults. And those programs need our support.

On some weekday evenings, when our schedule permits, my wife and I will watch something on TV before retiring for the night. We want a few minutes to sit and laugh together. We’ve found that laughing is more conducive to good sleep than the news, or a series about some sort of futuristic dystopia that all too closely resembles daily reality.

... perhaps it is not such a coincidence that this week’s parsha about building the Tabernacle, a thing of space, is the backdrop for the controversy swirling around Whoopi Goldberg’s statement that to her eyes, as an African-American woman, the Holocaust wasn’t about racism, since it was one group of white people (Nazis) murdering another group of white people (Jews).

When we decided that my eldest son had reached that fateful age - the age when it seemed appropriate that he have a cell phone - we waded in with hesitation and deep reservation. It was uncharted territory for us as parents, and we were filled with anxiety. Were we making the right decision?

The difficulty with providing any kind of imagery for G!D is that people end up confusing metaphor with the reality. This week’s Parshat Yitro contains the 10 Statements (not commandments, as it’s been erroneously rendered in English) within which we find “Thou shalt not make graven images….” Why is it such a horror— one of the top 10! —to make a graven image of the Divine?

If you’re anything like me, you spend a lot of time up in your head thinking about getting your work done--planning, striving, checking items off the mental to-do list, worrying about how to keep all the balls in the air and how to meet this or that deadline or get ahead.