Traditional Jews observe the dietary laws derived mostly from today’s Parsha, Shemini. Thousands of years before the 19th century saying, “You are what you eat” came into being, Judaism recognized the essential significance of food in the Jewish and human experience. Originally, without explaining why we should eat some but not all types of food, […]
Parashat Devarim is read the Shabbat before Tisha B’av, which begins Wednesday night of this upcoming week. Tisha B’av is a day of mourning including a full day fast with the same restrictions as Yom Kippur. We sit on the floor as if we are in the shiva period of mourning. We mourn the destruction […]
Vayikra 5783 – Is it Real?
Over the past several months, the use of the artificial intelligence engine, ChatGPT, has received lots of media attention. I am fascinated with the capabilities and the dangers of this technology. Would it be possible for these artificial intelligence engines to one day replace what we rely on human intelligence […]
With the high death rate attributed to Covid over the past couple of years, the war in Ukraine, and the passing of Queen Elizabeth last month, we have been inundated with death. Many within our community lost loved ones during this time, and the world has faced astronomical levels of death. 1.06 million people have […]
Parasha Vayakhel is almost a word-by-word repetition found earlier in the book of Shmot of how to build the Tabernacle. Rather than rehash what others have spoken about in the past several weeks, today I will focus on the first couple of verses of the parasha. G-d commands the Israelites to keep the Shabbat, keep […]
Tis the season. Since it is Shabbat, I hope everyone planned ahead to fulfill the mitzvah of Chinese food and a movie on Christmas. Your festive meal may just have to wait until Motzi Shabbat this year. There is no escaping the music of the season. Hanukkah has long since passed and with-it Dreidel, Dreidel, […]
It is wonderful that our Kehillah has taken the step toward Shabbat morning normalcy by returning to an in-person minyan. Today marks the sixth service in a row we have had an in-person minyan. Thank-you to the core group, Becca, Joel, Mike, Rachelle, Bill, Barry, and Daniel, who continued to show up each week to […]
Shabbat Shalom.
This week has been very memorable for the Kehillah as we all came together as a community to discuss how we will meet again in person. The last time we met in person was on March 14 after some debate if we should follow the lead of others and even hold services.
It has now […]
And these are the rules that you shall set before them. When you acquire a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free, without payment. If he came single, he shall leave single; if he had a wife, his wife shall leave with him. If his master gave […]
This is my paternal lineage
The descendants of Natan ha Kohen.
Yosef ben Natan ha Kohen – Born 1864 Russia begot
Nachum ben Yosef ha Kohen – Born 1890 in Birmingham – begot
Moshe ben Nachum ha Kohen begot
Aharon Shalom ben Moshe ha Kohen – Born 1960 (that’s me)
The maternal side of my family is only traceable to my […]
