by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 7, 2024 | Light Unto the Nations, Va'eira
In an insightful interpretation by Rabbi Pinchas Polonsky, the story of the Exodus is presented not just as a pivotal chapter in Jewish history, but as a defining moment in the spiritual journey of all humanity. The grand revelation of God during the Exodus, as...
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...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 22, 2023 | Bible Study
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz My anti-religious friend was giving me a hard time again. “You keep saying that you are on a spiritual journey towards God,” he said. “But all I see are roadblocks. Don’t do this. Don’t say that. Don’t eat this. Don’t think that. That’s not a...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 19, 2023 | Free Will, God, Va'eira
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz People are complicated but God has us figured out, as the prophet Jeremiah said: Most devious is the heart; It is perverse—who can fathom it? I Hashem probe the heart, Search the mind— To repay every man according to his ways, With the proper...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 16, 2023 | Bible Study
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz The beginning of the Book of Exodus is the first time that we encounter antisemitism. Pharaoh was the first to use the antisemitic tropes that have, unfortunately, become all too familiar: “There are too many of them”, “They...
