Like the Children of Israel who are wandering through the wilderness right now in our cycle of reading the Torah, we, too, have been suddenly dropped into very strange and unfamiliar terrain. Nothing looks quite the same, everything seems a bit odd, out of place. Deserted, even. But we are wandering in a wilderness and […]
This week’s parasha is Ki Tissa, which contains the well-known, angst-filled scenario where the newly freed Israelites are awaiting Moses’ return from the top of Mt. Sinai with the freshly inscribed Tablets of the Covenant. But Moses is delayed. It seems like he has been gone forever. Maybe he’s not coming back at all. And […]
It is with a heavy heart that we all have been watching the cascade of communal events being cancelled across the country due to the loving care we have for those in our communities to protect them from COVID-19. So, too, here at Bet Haverim, every decision that we make will be done with careful […]
It’s Friday evening and it’s been a long week: challenges at work, shuttling the kids around to their activities, managing crises big and small, and simply dealing with the every day balancing act of life. Sounds pretty normal, right? And then comes Shabbat; a beautiful, age-old Jewish gift of rest and renewal that comes prepackaged […]
Imagine a law that goes something like this: On the last Thursday of November each year at evening, you, and your spouse and children, shall appear before your extended family for a feast of thanksgiving to the Lord. When you arrive you shall ring the buzzer with your elbow. (Why? You wouldn’t come empty-handed would […]
But the Jewish Spirit Cannot Be Broken Just this past week, the Jewish community observed the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht, “The Night of Broken Glass.” This organized action attacking the Jewish communities across Germany marked a turning point for German Jewry. One of the main items on Adolf Hitler’s agenda for Europe was ridding the […]
Moving words offered by Rabbi David Aladjem at Shabbat services on the anniversary of the Pittsburgh Tree of Life murders.
As long as we are alive, we are never truly finished. Day after day, we are learning, growing, changing. We can’t help it, whether we are rabbis or not. Whether we like it or not. Life is a process of transformation.
Shining a New Light on Passover Beginning early Wednesday morning, April 8th, when the first rays of sunlight peak out from behind the hills, as most of us are still dreaming of the grand spring festival of freedom–Passover–that begins that night, Jews around the world will also observe an occurrence in nature that happens only […]
An only recently discovered (and perhaps written) ancient text revealing the true Jewish roots of Dr. Seuss has just been made available to a very select few. And just in time for the Purim festivities this month…
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