by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 4, 2022 | Cheshvan, Kindness and Compassion, Parenting, Prayer, Redemption, Vayishlach
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz The Torah lists many holidays, but Mother’s Day is not one of them. Because the Torah commands us to honor our parents, every day is Mother’s Day (and Father’s Day). But if there could be one designated day to celebrate the divine gift of...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 25, 2022 | Cheshvan, Holiness, Psalms, Tishrei
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz When I first began learning in yeshiva (school for Torah learning), one of my rabbis told me that being a religious Jew was a form of insanity. This helped explain the strange hairstyles with wild earlocks, the strings hanging out of my...
by Eliyahu Berkowitz | f 21, 2022 | Bereishit, Shemini Atzeret, Tishrei
The Jewish holiday season in the Hebrew month of Tishrei is a short but intense period ending with the Biblical holiday of Shemini Atzeret (the Eight Day of Assembly). Since there is no Temple service today, its modern incarnation is Simchat Torah, characterized by...
by Rabbi Elie Mischel | f 12, 2022 | Sukkot, Tishrei
On December 19, 1963, Martin Luther King gave an unusual speech at Western Michigan University. He said: “Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word in modern psychology. It is the word “maladjusted.” This word is the...
by Chaim Barzel | f 12, 2022 | Faith, Sukkot, Tishrei
By Chaim Barzel The Biblical commandment to build and sit in a sukkah (temporary dwelling) during the festival of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) is very beloved by the People of Israel. I recently read a story about a Jewish family in Berlin in 1938 who risked their...
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...
