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. (more…)
Parashat Korah is one of those key transitional places in The Torah. For many weeks, we have been reading about The Journey of The Children of Israel through the wilderness. We read about the glorious redemption from slavery in Egypt, about the power of God and the reluctant determination of Moses to lead the people.It is important to remember what a reluctant leader Moses always was. Our Sages have taught us that Moses was the most humble man ever to walk the earth; he didn’t want to be a leader but God and History had completely different plans for him. Moses was the one who considered himself an “Arel Sfatayim (someone with uncircumcised lips).” It took major convincing and arm twisting from God to send Moses on his way to help free our People from bondage. (more…)
This Shabbat we will once again read the story of The Twelve Spies that were sent by Moses to scout The Promised Land. There are a couple of things that we have to keep in mind as we prepare to re-acquaint ourselves with this Biblical Story.
First, it is important to remember that God is the one who instructs Moses to send scouts to take a look at the land but perhaps the most important thing to remember is that Moses, just as instructed by God, appoints a representative from each one of the tribes. I have always found this story to be not only interesting but also very ironic.
I am sure that many of you are familiar with the popular saying, “Wherever you have two Jews, you have three ideas!” So what exactly was Moses thinking, better still, did God really believe that 12 people were going to find a consensus as to what they thought the land looked like? (more…)
This Shabbat, we will read Parashat Naso, which is the largest Torah portion in the entire Torah. We could certainly spend hours studying and understanding the numerous concepts that appear in this Parashah. Among other things, Parashat Naso contains the explanation of The Ordeal of The Sotah, the explanation for the Vows of The Nazarites and The Priestly Blessing.
Rather than talking about The Torah Portion for this week, I would like to share some of my thoughts on The Haftarah for Parashat Naso. The Haftarah for this Shabbat tells the story of the remarkable birth of one of our Biblical Heroes — Shimshon (Samson). The reason why we read this particular Haftarah on this Shabbat is due to the link between Shimshon being a Nazarite himself (having taken that vow) and the description of The Vow of The Nazarite contained in Parshat Naso. (more…)
This week we began reading Parashat B’midbar, which owes its name to The Book of The Torah that we began reading this week: Sefer B’midbar. B’midbar is an incredible turning point in The Torah because it takes us to a completely different level of understanding of what our relationship with God should be as Jews. Parashat B’midbar is always read on The Shabbat that precedes The Holy Day of Shavuot. This in and by itself tells us much about the nature of revelation. Shavuot commemorates the gift of Torah by God to The Children of Israel. Why did God choose The Wilderness to give us The Torah? The context of B’midbar is one of wilderness and wandering.
The years that we spent in The Midbar (The Wilderness) were years of tremendous growth — both physical and spiritual. It was a time of wandering and yearning. Some of the most precious things in life are not automatic. Sometimes to understand what a gift or a blessing really means, we have to detach ourselves from all extraneous influences and thoughts. (more…)
This will be the home of Torah from Sin City, where Rabbi Goodman from Temple Beth Sholom will share his musings, his stories and his sermons about religion, Israel and life itself.
