by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 3, 2022 | Faith, God, Jonah, Light Unto the Nations, Prayer, Repentance, Rosh Hashana, Sukkot, Temple, Tishrei, Yom Kippur, Zechariah
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz When I think about the High Holidays, I picture synagogues full of Jews, the men wrapped in snow-white prayer shawls swaying silently, the women praying fervently. They are Jewish holidays and the pinnacle of the Hebrew calendar. These are...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 22, 2022 | Covenant, Justice, Light Unto the Nations, Responsibility
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Every year, just before Rosh Hashana (Hebrew New Year), I ask myself why I should work so hard at repenting. How bad were my sins really? I look around and figure that I am no worse than any of my neighbors. And then I read the Torah portion...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 22, 2022 | Community, Kindness and Compassion, Light Unto the Nations, Re’eih, Tests and Trials
Usually, it is only the significant events that we remember decades later. But I still remember every detail of what happened 23 years ago. I was on my way home from reserve duty and anxious to get home. It was evening and I had missed dinner. I had about half an hour...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 9, 2022 | Chosen Nation, Israel, Light Unto the Nations, Va'etchanan
God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky or, alternatively, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. In fact, Jews are rare. Today, Jews represent a mere .2% of the world’s population. In the words of Mark Twain: If the...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 14, 2022 | Antisemitism, Balak, Light Unto the Nations, Messiah
There are two ways to verify the “truth” of the Bible (though, as we all know, the Bible is true whether we prove it or not). One way is to search back in time through archaeology or historical evidence to verify whether events described in the Bible actually...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 12, 2022 | Beha'alotcha, Israel, Leadership, Light Unto the Nations, Temple
I often find myself walking around my house, turning off lights in empty rooms. Why waste electricity if there is no one there to benefit from it? Interestingly, a similar question arose thousands of years ago, in the Temple itself! In the eighth chapter of Numbers,...
