Dear Friends,

During the Ten Days of Teshuva, the days from the beginning of Rosh Hashanna to Yom Kippur, I often find myself thinking about what has been and what I want my life to become in this brand New Year. I am sure that most of us approach these Ten Days with tremendous trepidation and that we all search within our soul to find a way to reach our full potential in life as we turn towards God.

This Yom Kippur, I would like to do something that I have never done before. Read the rest of this entry »

Parashat Ki Tetze can be quite overwhelming to study! Why? Well, it contains an incredible amount of Mitzvot. A simple reading of this Sidra will leave you puzzled at first. How do you connect some of the different commandments that it contains? Is there a logic in the way in which all of these different Mitzvot are laid out through out this week’s Torah Portion? Hardly!

Instead of trying to put the puzzle of Ki Tetze together, I would much rather bring your attention to Judaism as a whole. One of the most important and absolute truths (I don’t use this term often or lightly) about Judaism is that it is not merely a religion. Judaism is a way of life, and that is what makes us so different from all other different religions in the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Click here to find a write-up of Monday’s event in the Las Vegas Sun.

Monday September 15, 2008. Doors open at 10:45 AM.

Dear Friends,

Very often during this time of the year, I find myself thinking about my grandparents. I do so because Rosh Hashana brings with it memories of distant places far away — not only in the physical sense but also in a very profound spiritual way.

I think of where we came from. I remember the reality that we faced as a people in so many different lands throughout our history and of the sacrifice of those who got to the shores of our great nation seeking a new life. There are blessings that we must be thankful for that we often take for granted, one of those such blessings is democracy and freedom! When Rosh Hashana and Yom Kipur leave us this New Year, we will find our nation immersed in an absolute exercise in democracy, which is the result of freedom and liberty. Read the rest of this entry »

I wanted to write about this experience for quite some time, but for some reason or another I have not had a chance to do it. Every time I travel to a new country where I haven’t been before, I first search to see if there are any Kosher restaurants to be visited!

This past summer while on vacation in Costa Rica, I made one of the most amazing Kosher discoveries in recent memory — at least in my own recent memory. There is a Kosher Burger King in San Jose, Costa Rica! Who knew? Read the rest of this entry »

Most of us know the story from The Tanach where Elijah strives to “understand” God’s presence and effect in the world. Elijah looks carefully at what happens around him to see where God is and what God is trying to say to him. Elijah looks at a fire consuming a bush but can’t find God in the fire. He listens to a great noise but can’t find God in the noise, and he feels a powerful wind but he can’t find God in the wind.

He finally finds God speaking to him in a “still small voice!” — just like the author of Unetaneh Tokef (one of the most powerful and beautiful prayers in our High Holy Day liturgy) wants us to visualize God’s power. Not in the midst of a great show of force, rather in the silence and the stillness of a small voice! Kol D’mama Daka! Read the rest of this entry »

This article appeared in The Jewish Daily Forward

Rabbis Focus on Professional Development

By Marissa Brostoff

Moses was probably an introvert.

That was one of the conclusions reached by the rabbis who gathered at a professional development seminar in Manhattan this summer. As part of the seminar, the rabbis took the Myers-Briggs personality test, which measures how introspective, intuitive and perceptive people are, to better understand how they operated in challenging workplace situations. Then they tried to predict how some of the founders of their company — and some of Judaism’s forefathers — would have fared on the same test.  

That rabbis can benefit from learning management techniques more commonly used in the corporate world is a central tenet of a new program called the Legacy Heritage Rabbinic Enrichment Initiative, hosted by the Jewish Theological Seminary. This summer, 14 “mid-career” Conservative movement rabbis from around the country spent 10 days in New York immersed in a program that combined managerial training with more traditional forms of rabbinical study.

Read the rest of this entry »

When we first decided to come to Costa Rica on vacation, we did so for a number of reasons. We were told that we would be able to see the most amazing wildlife and breath-taking sights. We arrived here last week and everything has been exactly like we expected it to be. The monkeys swing out in full force every morning, and we can see them from our window, then we run into them again when we go to the beach later in the day. We have seen butterflies that seem to have been colored by the hand of God, the colors are not only vibrant but they are unlike any colors we have ever seen before! We were prepared for all of these, and we haven’t been disappointed.

Read the rest of this entry »

As many of you know, the past two years have been a time of incredible spiritual growth for me. I had always wanted to better understand the specific area in Halacha (Jewish Law) that deals with the writing of Gittin (a Jewish writ of divorce), which is so complicated that one needs absolute expertise to be able to understand it. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a great summer so far! Well, its been a little while since I posted something on my blog. The last couple of weeks have come and gone like a whirlwind. Usually summertime is a very slow time when it comes to Temple Beth Sholom.

For the most part during the last 10 years, the summer was the time that I used to carefully meditate on the upcoming High Holy Days and to begin thinking about my sermons. This summer has been a very different one — wonderful but different! Read the rest of this entry »

This coming Sunday, July 6, 2008, The Summerlin Community Baptist Church is holding a “God Bless Israel Night.” It will be held at their church (find a map below) on 2100 Snow Trail (behind The Trails Shopping Center) at 6 PM. What exactly is it and why are they doing it? Read the rest of this entry »