Counting the Omer: Measuring Time, Measuring Ourselves
Jews have always measured time. The Mishnah informs us that we do not just have the one new year of Rosh Hashanah. Not content to…
Israelite’s Freedom, Israel’s Freedom: Reflections on President Obama’s Israel Trip
Sometimes, particularly in this book of Leviticus that we started reading from last week, the Torah can seem convoluted, murky … difficult to understand. When…
I Call to God, God Calls to Me (Vayikra)
One of my favorite Torah passages occurs in the first portion of Exodus. Moses had just killed an Egyptian taskmaster, and Moses ran away to…
Enough Already! (Vayakhel/Pekudei)
A few years ago, I got into electronic music production. I have what is known as a MIDI keyboard, a piano keyboard that plugs into…
The Holiness of Broken Tablets (Ki Tissa)
Holiness. We often think of holiness as the pinnacle of our achievements, such as when we are at our best, our most thoughtful, our most…