by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 14, 2022 | Bo, Mourning, Passover, Redemption
The Passover Seder is a generational affirmation, a transmission of the story of God’s miraculous redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt. In this context, the Seder plate, as the centerpiece of the Seder table, is a visual aid, containing symbolic foods that are...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 15, 2021 | Mourning, Vayechi
After Jacob died, Joseph ordered his physicians to embalm his father. This is shocking to many as embalming is forbidden by Jewish law, and the only other mention of embalming in the Bible was performed on Joseph just a few years later (Genesis 50:26). Though Jacob’s...
by Eliyahu Berkowitz | f 13, 2021 | Kings, Mourning, Repentance, Temple, Tenth of Tevet
The tenth day of the Hebrew month Tevet, which comes one week after the last day of Hanukkah, is a minor fast day. The fast begins at dawn and ends after sundown. The fast commemorates of the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia in...
by Rabbi Tuly Weisz | f 5, 2021 | Mourning, Toldot
Esau returned home from the field to find Jacob cooking lentil stew. Famished from a tiring day of hunting, Esau demanded that Jacob give him some lentil stew to eat, Jacob agreed on the condition that Esau would sell him his birthright. Feeling that he had no use for...
by Rabbi Tuly Weisz | f 5, 2015 | Community, Kindness and Compassion, Marriage and Relationships, Mourning, Prayer, Vayeira
Abraham receives a special visitor in his home. Three days after the painful procedure of circumcision, God comes to visit Abraham. What does God say to Abraham? What is His message at this significant time? Strangely, the verse only says that God ‘appears’ to Abraham...
