by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 6, 2023 | Israel, Judges, Responsibility
By Rabbi Elie Mischel When I graduated from my Boston area high school about 25 years ago, I chose to spend a year and a half in Israel, where I studied the Bible and Jewish wisdom at a yeshiva (a school for Jewish studies). As I came to the end of my studies, I had...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 31, 2022 | Bamidbar, Community, God, Israel
As its name implies, the Book of Numbers opens with a census, counting the men of Israel for the purposes of war, and then describes how they camped in the desert. Very much like an army camp, the tribes were arranged in four groups of three tribes each. At the center...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 16, 2021 | Vayechi
Before he leaves the world, Jacob blesses his sons (Genesis 49). Similarly, Moses also blesses the tribes before he dies (Deuteronomy 33). But the two sets of blessings are very different. Not all of Jacob’s blessings are positive. It is perhaps for this reason that...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 12, 2021 | Community, Covenant, Israel, Vayeitzei
The story of Jacob and his wives is far more than a biographical account. It is, in fact, the beginnings of the nation that takes its name from Jacob’s second name: Israel. From four wives he fathered twelve sons from which the twelve tribes of Israel were born. The...
