Weekly D'var Torah

Since the Middle Ages, the Jewish School Year has concluded with a hike into the woods and bonfires into the night.  Lag BaOmer certainly has religious and mystical overtones: it commemorates how Jewish learning went on despite the Roman decree of death to anyone...Read more...

The Omer and Self-Improvement go together like thunder and lightning!  Each day is another spiritual opportunity for growth.  Take a look at the below table and with just one small spiritual challenge each day you'll be amazed!

Every year we are told to see ourselves as being freed from Egypt.  The Baal Shem Tov said that the minute we stop leaving Egypt, we are back there again- that is how pernicious and "sticky" slavery is.

The way out is, according to the Torah, to head out to the...Read more...

The very first Mitzvah given to the Jewish people might be surprising.   It wasn't to be fruitful and multiply -- that was the blessing given to Adam and Eve.  It wasn't to be holy or to be sure to do Mitzvot.  It was in fact to start our own...Read more...

When the Messiah comes, says the Talmud, and all the crooked paths are made straight and the worm of hate in the heart of humanity has been excised at last, all of the festivals will be abolished.  No more Passover or Yom Kippur.  No more Shavuot or Chanukah.  Why? ...Read more...

A goodly portion of the third book of the Torah is devoted to the ritual aspects of basically...Read more...

VaYakhel: Building the Place of G-d's Presence on Earth

Historical moments seem to be made by great men and women doing something great at a great time. But is it so?

In Torah terms, the...Read more...

What does a soul look like?  This week's Torah portion might try to answer that.  

Up on Sinai, G-d and Moses are talking blueprints.  For what?  The Tabernacle- the traveling...Read more...

We Jews are nomads from way back.  Ignoring fences and boundaries, always seeking the future, on the move.  That's pretty much Jewish history.  Together with that, we have a center, a...Read more...

The Blessing of Being a Blessing: Taking Action as Sacred Response

By Rabbi Moshe Rudin

This is my personal take… not that of Adath Shalom or anyone else… thanks!

                               Read more...

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Optimism is built into the Jewish soul.  It is not that we deny grim realities and daunting challenges -- we certainly have faced more than our share of those.  But we also have an awareness born of our history that there...Read more...

Parshat VaYechi: Was Jacob a Bad Father?  

The True Meaning of the Coat of Many Colors

Every year as we read the Joseph story we look for lessons in the tragic...Read more...

Nissim Black, the amazing Haredi  singer/rapper who released his and fellow rapper Kosha Dillz' take on Adam Sandler's Chanukah Song 2.0 (destined to be a classic) raps, When they get up at you and say, give me proof; well it's you -- and every other...Read more...

I can almost hear them.

"Did you see what that skinny Jewish kid just did?"

"He rolled that huge boulder off the well and drew water for all of our flocks!  I can't believe it!"

In between the...Read more...