A Darkness that Can Be Felt - Interfaith Dialogue in the Haze
06/07/2023 01:43:02 PM
Once a month I take part in an interfaith conversation with a group of Christians, Hindus and Muslims. Over the time that our Interfaith Council has met, we have learned to trust each other and become friends. Our discussions are open-hearted. Despite...Read more...
The Five Minute Rabbi
05/31/2023 09:29:47 AM
Don’t read this- listen to it right here!
The Torah says (Exodus, parshat Mishpatim): Six Days you shall labor and perform all of your...Read more...
Shavuot: Seven Weeks to Freedom
05/23/2023 03:11:31 PM
What is Shavuot? Well, seven weeks ago we celebrated the anniversary of the Exodus. Freedom from slavery and the horrors of Pharaoh’s Egypt. ...Read more...
In the Desert: Again. Parshat BaMidbar
05/14/2023 07:02:22 PM
In Numbers, the fourth book of the Torah, we join the Jewish people on their journey through the howling wilderness on our way to the Promised Land. We encounter moments of joy and challenges of rebellion and disaster. But through it all, though long...Read more...
The Secret of Jewish Observance
05/08/2023 10:52:09 PM
Contemplating the Conclusion of the Jewish Year, 5783
Looking at Jewish spiritual life, it’s really astonishing just how much stuff we do. I mean look at it: We start the year by blowing loud blasts on Ram’s...Read more...
Lag B’Omer! The Holiday of Hiddenness
05/03/2023 05:33:17 AM
No texts, no prayers, no services…. And no real name! Lag B’Omer actually means “thirty three days of the Omer Count”!
So what gives?
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The Five Minute Rabbi: What to Know about...Counting the Omer!
05/02/2023 05:36:38 PM
See/hear this week's message on the go:
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Israel: It’s Not Complicated
04/25/2023 01:26:23 PM
It is very rare to see positive coverage of Israel in the world press. There are too many examples and too much explanation is required to expose how profound the distortion is for this short message. But as one who has been to Israel thirty times (at...Read more...
Take the Clean Speech Challenge - Together with Jewish Organizations and Shuls from all over Jersey!
04/18/2023 08:45:44 AM
Who is the one who desires life, who loves their days and sees good? It is the one who guards their tongue from speaking ill, and their lips from guile, turning aside from hurtfulness, seeking peace and pursuing peace.
-Psalm 34:13-15
Judaism doesn’t...Read more...
Where is our miracle? D’var Torah for the Seventh Day of Pesach
04/10/2023 11:23:14 AM
On the Seventh Day of Pesach which begins Tuesday night, we celebrate the Parting of the Sea of Reeds.
The story goes like this: Pharaoh and Egypt have finally released Israel. We head out, mustering at Ramses and then...Read more...
Pesach 5783
04/04/2023 08:57:00 AM
Backgrounder: Don’t Forget to Count the Omer!
A Short Guide to Sefirat HaOmer
By Rabbi RudinRead more...
Shabbat HaGadol
03/29/2023 01:55:32 PM
This Shabbat is called Shabbat HaGadol, the Great Shabbat. Our tradition teaches that back in Egypt, this Shabbat, four days before the Exodus, was when the Jewish people refused to labor any longer as slaves. Instead, they took lambs for offerings as a prelude to their freedom.
In essence, our freedom began as an act of defiance: no longer agreeing to be slaves and instead, offering the sacred animal of the Egyptians, the...Read more...
Guest Teacher! - Find the Mitzvah that Speaks to You!
03/21/2023 05:25:51 PM
This week's D'var Torah is presented by our recent Bat Mitzvah who provides a very powerful and meaningful message about spirituality: find the Mitzvah that speaks to you and make it into the wings that lift you!
The name of my parsha...Read more...
Matzah and Maror or Apples and Honey? When was the World Created?
03/19/2023 05:59:14 PM
When exactly was the world created? The Rabbis of the Talmud weigh in.
Rabbi Eliezer says that the world was created in the harvest month of Tishrei. Rabbi Joshua argues that it was created in the springtime month of Nisan. Both...Read more...
Pesach Mitzrayim and Pesach Dorot- The Egyptian Passover and the Passover of the Generations
03/12/2023 08:50:41 PM
Passover is the story-telling holiday disguised as a meal. We love to kvetch about the dry, crackly Matzah but this most quintessential of all Jewish foods has a subtle nutty, homey flavor that deep down, tugs at our...Read more...
Esther Concealed and Revealed: the Mask of Purim
03/06/2023 12:31:10 PM
Purim, the early spring dress-up holiday celebrating the defeat of an evil doer’s attempt to wipe us out, has surprising depths.
Aside from frivolity and joy, the great theme of the day is...Read more...
Dispelling the Shadow: Parshat Zachor- the Secret of Amalek
02/27/2023 12:45:19 AM
This Shabbat we read Parshat Zachor, a short passage from Deuteronomy evoking a moment of unspeakable horror and trauma:
Remember what Amalek did to you as you left Egypt: coming upon you when you were exhausted and weakened, attacking...Read more...
Parhat Mishpatim: Searching for the Essence of Jewish Life
02/12/2023 08:29:56 PM
I can’t worship a G-d whom I can understand.
I can’t practice a religion that I can explain.
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Lessons on Freedom from the Torah Part III
02/05/2023 11:47:42 PM
We have seen in this series that the Exodus narrative is the world’s greatest tool of personal freedom and empowerment. Part one explored the necessity of freedom as a precondition of being who we truly are. In part two, we explored the need to master time as the second precondition for freedom.
In today’s lesson, we encounter one of the central Mitzvot of Judaism and delve into its...Read more...
The First Mitzvah: Exodus Lessons in Freedom Part II
01/29/2023 05:20:20 PM
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The Exodus story isn’t just an epic saga. It’s an instruction manual on how to be free. The word in Hebrew for Freedom, Cherut, חרות isn’t about being rid of obligations and responsibility. That’s not what freedom means to...Read more...
Leaving Egypt: The Ongoing Journey of Freedom
01/21/2023 10:06:30 PM
The story that we tell over and over again, every day, through our prayers and sacred texts, isn't about religion per se. The Stand at Sinai when we all heard G-d's Ten Commandments, the basis of the Mitzvot, practices, customs and rules of Jewish life is certainly...Read more...
Who Will Stand With Us? Parshat Va'Erah
01/17/2023 06:36:44 PM
The above iconic picture shows Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a survivor of the Holocaust and one of the greatest teachers to...Read more...
The Turning Point- Parshat Shemot/Exodus
01/08/2023 05:00:57 PM
The first two chapters of Exodus go from degradation to degradation. The Jewish people, the Children of Israel, are enslaved. Their suffering and oppression at the hands of the Egyptians is beyond all imagining - or rather, it would be if we had not been subjected to...Read more...
Did The Jews Make Resolutions in Egypt?
01/03/2023 05:19:01 AM
According to the Talmud, keeping resolutions is all about who you make the resolution to. Making a promise to yourself is great. But at the same time, when you are able to go beyond yourself and realize that others are counting on you, then the chances...Read more...
Read more... Eight Lights for Eight Nights: Chanukah 5783- The Hidden Light
12/18/2022 01:16:31 PM
In the Torah, the supreme source book of Judaism, light is the very first creation. And yet… none of us has ever seen it. This light that we see by -- that is not the first primordial light. That...Read more...
Chanukah - Were the Maccabees Right Wing Extremists?
12/11/2022 11:49:44 AM
Yes, that is the buzz. The Maccabees were a bunch of religious fundamentalist wack a doodles. That's the claim and here's the background... it's 250 BCE.
Under the rule of the Syrian...Read more...
Take My Camels... Please! Parshat VaYishlach
12/04/2022 06:47:30 PM
Abraham and Sarah, the first Jewish couple, give birth to Isaac. Isaac marries Rebecca. They have twin boys, Esau and Jacob. When it comes time for Isaac to choose which of his two sons will receive the blessing of Abraham to become the progenitor...Read more...
What’s with the Rocks?: How to Overcome Obstacles: Lessons from Parshat Yetzei. פרשת ויצא
11/28/2022 07:06:21 PM
This week’s Torah portion tells us about the journey of Jacob, the last patriarch who gave us all our name of Israel. But the starring role goes to another figure we encounter. A rock. That’s right, a rock.
Seventeen-year-old Jacob, fleeing to...Read more...
Let Us Give Thanks...
11/20/2022 02:15:26 PM
Among the gifts that the Jews have given the world is the gift of gratitude- for gratitude requires a source. Seeing each day, seeing the world, as a gift given rather than an ordeal to endure, that is truly a revolution in how each human sees life, for no matter what we face,...Read more...
Parshat HaShidduchim: Watering the Camels
11/14/2022 03:25:25 PM
This week's Parsha focuses on continuity. With the death of our Mother Sarah, the viability of the Jewish project comes into doubt. Isaac, bereft of his mother, alienated from his father by the debacle of the Binding of Isaac, lives as a lost soul with his...Read more...
Parshat VaYeraThe Power that is You
11/06/2022 10:53:09 AM
Where does Abraham get the Chutzpah to Challenge G-d?
In this week's Torah portion, we find Abraham and Sarah living with a small group of their students, followers and families at the edge of the wilderness...Read more...
Lech L'cha: Abraham's Altars-
11/01/2022 05:36:54 PM
Reading this week's Torah portion, we see Abraham called by G-d to "Go forth from your land, from the place of your birth and from your father's house to the Land that I will show you." Abraham's life from that point on seems to be...Read more...
Parshat Noah: Floating on the Seas of Chaos?
10/25/2022 12:19:54 PM
In this week's Torah portion, we retell the primordial tale of the Great Flood, followed by the confusion of tongues in the Tower of Babel.
Question: why was the first thing that the next generation after the flood did was build a...Read more...