The Rabbi's Word

Shavua tov my dear and wonderful TAS family!! I just looked at the calendar and realized that we are only TWO WEEKS away from Rosh Ha-Shanah!! How is that even possible? I guess I got caught up in…”the holidays are so late this year!!” Or maybe, the fact that whenever...

Rabbi’s message Shavua tov and Chag Purim sameach to the entire TAS community. I hope that everyone had a very fun night last night and made lots of noise with your groggers and ate lots of delicious homentashen!! And, let’s hope that today continues to be a very...

Rabbi’s message Shavua tov to my dear TAS community…and thank you for all of the wonderful birthday wishes that I have received…even though my big day isn’t until tomorrow, but Sue enforces my deadline very strictly!! Today and tomorrow, we welcome the new month of...

Shavua tov my dear TAS community!! The concentric circles that started back on Tisha B’Av, are growing closer and closer every day as we approach Rosh Ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur and also the festival of Sukkot in a couple of weeks. This Shabbat is the last of the 7...

Shavua tov to the Ami Shalom community… This week’s parasha brings us to the end of the Book of Genesis. Va-Y’Hi, “and he lived”, recounts the last days of our Father Jacob, or Israel, and continues through the death of Joseph, Jacob’s son who had risen to a very...

This week’s parasha, portion, Re’eh, presents a seemingly very easy choice in life. Moses tells the people, still waiting to cross over the Jordan River, “See, this day, I set before you blessing and curse. Blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God...

Shavua tov to all!! I want to begin by taking a moment to thank our dear Cantor Mike Sirota. Needless to say, these last several months have been very, very trying on all of us and our families and friends and the entire community and beyond. And then, the intensity...

Shavua tov to all!! Even during the most distressing of times, being able to find an opportunity to study and learn Torah gives a break from whatever is going on and allows us to focus on our tradition and to learn together. This week’s Torah portion, Naso, is the...

Shavua tov to all!! This is another busy week for our community…as some of you know, one of my favorite aspects of Jewish life is the Jewish calendar. I do not see the Jewish year as a perfect circle in time, rather, my image of the Jewish year is an hour-glass, with...

Shavua tov everyone!! What an interesting and important week we have this week. Thursday night and Friday is one of the most important days in modern Jewish history, Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, and then on Shabbat we begin reading the 4th book of the Torah, the...

Shavua tov and happy Lag B’Omer!! As we covered last week, Lag B’Omer is the 33rd day in the counting of the Omer, beginning on the second day of Pesah, Passover, and continuing for 49 days leading to the holiday of Shavuot. For many, many years the weeks between...

havua Tov!! Every week I look forward to sharing my thoughts about this week’s Torah portion, parasha, and other events in our Jewish calendar and life. This week, we have an interesting event that is rarely if ever observed in our community, Pesah Sheni, the second...

Shavua tov…when the Jewish calendar was developed and codified in the Torah, this time of year between Passover and Shavuot was a quiet time. We count the days, one day at a time with the Omer, 49 days between the two festivals. For many, many years the only pause in...

Shavua tov…I usually add another greeting here but today, as our wonderful member H.K. taught us this past Shabbat, today is also Holocaust Memorial Day and the day of Heroism, Yom Ha-Shoah v’ha-g’vurah. This very special day of mourning and remembrance takes us back...

Shavua tov and Chag Sameach!! It’s another very busy and intense week…the last two days of Passover, Pesah, begin this evening, tomorrow is the 7th day and Thursday is the last day of the festival. During the service on Thursday we add the Yizkor prayers as we...

Rabbi's Message Shavua tov and Erev Pesah kasher v’sameach!! Wow!! There is so much that is going on in our communities and our homes…even though we are still mostly staying at home which is the right thing to be doing now. I had to go out yesterday to go to the...

Shavua tov to all!! I cannot even remember what day of ‘confinement’ this is but I think I’m into week 3 already. I do go out to the market once a week or so and I did visit with Sue at TAS last week very briefly and from a distance. But for the most part I’m sitting...

Rabbi's message Shavua tov to all…and Chodesh Nissan tov, too, on Wednesday night and Thursday!! What a week!! I had no idea what effect our ZOOM services on Shabbat would have on me and on our community…no idea what-so-ever. I had only ever participated in a ZOOM...

This will certainly be the most difficult weekly message that I have shared with my very special Temple Ami Shalom community. It is difficult because this will be the first time that I will be writing about the upcoming weekly Torah portion, parasha, but I will not be...