Category: Jewish Stories
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This was an interesting week for me: challenging, exhilarating, nourishing, disturbing, all at once. Last Sunday, I have started a week long Jewish Professionals Institute at Mechon Hadar. My reasoning was mostly financial – since I wouldn’t be able to afford going to Jerusalem this year to study at Pardes, I decided I would take…
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This Sunday I am embarking on a new adventure. I am starting a week-long class at Mechon Hadar. Again, not without trepidation. This is not exactly the place where the level of observance and Yirat Shamaim is according to my view of the world. And yet, I’ve decided to try it. For a very practical reason – there…
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This is a very hard Parshah. Honestly, aren’t most of them hard to digest? Here, we see that the fight for a better position, more privilege or higher standard of living is as old as time itself. Korach, a man of distinguished lineage and great knowledge orchestrates a revolt against Moshe and Aaron. When the…
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Yesterday, I have spent my morning attending the graduation (smicha) ceremony of the Yeshivat Maharat that took place in the beautiful Kehilat Yeshurun synagogue of the Upper East Side. Not without some trepidation I went not really knowing what to expect. For some time now I have been fascinated with roles of women in leadership within…
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Every Parshah “accidentally” throws some very contemporary notes at you. Everyone knows how ancient the city of Hebron is. This Parshah points out the depth of its history by comparing it to a city, apparently, well known in the ancient word and stating that Hebron is seven years older. כב וַיַּעֲלוּ בַנֶּגֶב, וַיָּבֹא עַד-חֶבְרוֹן, וְשָׁם אֲחִימַן…
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Just have to rant. Thinking about it more and more lately. Brings me back to the theater of the absurd, Your “blood pressure rising ” once the word “immigration ” comes up? Why is it at the low with the words like “rabbinate” or “Haredi”? I have just returned from a brainstorming meeting for the…
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Shavuot was always my favorite holiday. I was always thinking that it was because of my bad relationship with winter and my love of warmth that always arrives with this holiday. I also preferred dairy over meat all my life. And then I found another reason: my Hebrew birthday! I was born on the 7th of…
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Originally posted on joe wolfson: Shavuot is the festival of the Jewish people’s conversion. The gemara in Masechet Keritut (9a) derives from the Torah’s description of Mount Sinai the necessary steps that a potential candidate for conversion needs to take. Shavuot is also the festival on which we read Megillat Rut – Rut, also represents an ideal model…
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This week we count. א וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה בְּמִדְבַּר סִינַי, בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד: בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִי בַּשָּׁנָה הַשֵּׁנִית, לְצֵאתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם–לֵאמֹר. 1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the…
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Limmud is a really neat idea!I have been going to Limmud in New York area for years, was involved with the Limmud NY chavruta project and Limmud FSU for quite some time now. I have just returned from yet another amazing weekend celebrating Jewish life in all its incarnations. The energy of the place filled with a…
Noshing Across the Nation 