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Parashat Chukat Balak – Anger Management

After 40 years of journeying through the desert, the people of Israel arrive in the wilderness of Zin. After Miriam dies, there is no more water and the people become thirsty. God tells Moses to speak to a rock and command it to give water. Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly of people together in […]

Parashat Korach – Humility Matters

By Michael Carr

After 40 years of journeying through the desert, the people of Israel arrive in the wilderness of Zin. After Miriam dies, there is no more water and the people become thirsty. God tells Moses to speak to a rock and command it to give water. Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly of people […]

Parashat Shlach – Leading With Vision

In this week’s parasha, Sh’lach, which means “send,” God commands Moses to send 12 men to “spy out” the Promised Land before the Israelites enter into battle for its possession.As explained in the parasha, the results of this expedition were less than remarkable for at least ten of the spies. Those spies saw only the […]

Parashat Naso: Learning From Mistakes

Nothing is more difficult than admitting a mistake, but nothing is more human than making one. There are several places where the Torah deals with making mistakes and the merit of admitting one’s mistakes. In our parsha, we learn of the sota, a wife who is suspected of adultery. When the sota is accused, she […]

Shavuot, Parashat Re’eh: Listen for an Emotion

In today’s parasha Moses asks G-d  to give the Israelites divinity, vision, and insight into the future. Moses was given a ‘gift’ that made it easier for the Israelites to understand the message of Torah. In turn this provided more time to live Torah rather than learning how to read.

G-d intended for all Israelites to […]

Bamidbar: Posthumous Fame

A few weeks ago Alan introduced us to a D’var Torah written by artificial intelligence of ChatGPT. There is also a Jewish artificial intelligence website called Kosher.chat. It is described as being according to halacha and screens for antisemitic remarks. Here is a Dvar Torah written by Kosher.chat on Parshah Bamidbar.

In Parshah Bamidbar, we learn […]

B’chukotai- 5783 – Recognizing What Is Ours To Do

Thank you for joining me today and helping me celebrate the 59th anniversary of my bar mitzvah. I have tried to give the D’var each year on this day, and I read through some of these recently. On my 50th anniversary, I spoke of the moment – the exact moment – when I became a […]

Emor – 5783 – Sacred Time

I have never felt so squeezed on time as I do now. My to-do list is endless. I have Scout training items to work on, cub scout pack meetings and den meetings to plan, and camp forms to send in. I need to plan the summer trip we are taking to New York after the kids […]

Acharei Mot-Kedoshim- 5783 – How Do We Fulfill the Mitzvah to be A Holy People?

Shabbat Shalom and thank you for letting me celebrate my second bar mitzvah here at the Kehillah. This Shabbat morning offers me the opportunity for a do over.

What do I mean by this?

Well long story short;  I  go back to my days in graduate school. I lived at home and commuted between home and school […]

Tazria-Metzorah – 5783 – Liminal Thresholds

A dvar torah honoring Alicia Bach and Joel Portman on the occasion of their upcoming wedding (website version).

Consider the following six items:

Shaatnez (also known as linsey-woolsey: a material comprised of linen and wool)A lobsterA dead bodyנֶגַע צָרָעַת  (Nega Tzara’at) — spoken of in this week’s Torah reading: a disease that bears some similarity to leprosy.ChildbirthA […]