Embracing Your Inner Child

by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 29, 2023 | Passover

By Rabbi Elie Mischel Have you ever walked with a child and had the following experience? You are on the way to school, or it is time to leave the park and go home.  But whereas you are walking briskly, conscious of the time and where you have to be next, your...

A Sacred Love Story

by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 28, 2023 | Passover, Song of Songs

Song of Songs, read on the holiday of Passover, is written as a love story between a woman and her beloved. It describes a romantic relationship, often using very sensual language. At first glance, it seems like such a book has no place among the other books of the...

The Greatness of Gideon

by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 12, 2023 | Faith, God, Israel, Judges, Passover, Tests and Trials

By Rabbi Eliezer Mischel As a synagogue rabbi in New Jersey, I often thought of the classic insight that “no good deed goes unpunished.” While celebrating happy events like weddings and bar mitzvahs, I would praise a particular congregant or family in the community...

The Counting of the Omer

by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 19, 2022 | Counting the Omer, Emor, Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost), Temple

On the night after the Passover Seder, the second night of Passover (the 16th of Nisan), Jews begin to perform the commandment of counting the seven complete weeks of the Omer which culminates in the pilgrimage festival of Shavuot on the 50th day. This commandment is...

The Priestly Blessing on the Intermediate Days of Passover

by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 18, 2022 | Holiness, Naso, Passover, Prayer, Sukkot, Temple

Twice a year, during the intermediary days of Passover and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), a mass priestly blessing takes place at the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem. This event is usually attended by tens of thousands of Jews who are blessed by hundreds of Kohanim...

Chol Hamoed: Sanctifying the Mundane

by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 18, 2022 | Bo, Passover, Sukkot

The holidays of Passover and Sukkot (Feat of Tabernacles) are seven days in Israel and eight days outside of Israel. The first day each and, on Passover, the last day (first two and last two outside of Israel) are full holidays during which, similar to Shabbat,...