These are the words  that I shared at the recent JCRB-AJC Event featuring Ambassador Michael Oren.  As a member of the board of JCRB-AJC, I was honored with the opportunity to begin the evening with words of Torah and Prayer. January 28th, 2013 Yitro and Moshe: A Model Partnership This week in synagogue we will […]

Dr. Rona Novick was our guest speaker at Purim Gala 2013.  Dr. Novick’s topic was Youthful Wonder: The Life Lessons We can Learn From Children. Dr. Novick has posted her presentation on her blog with some beautiful comments about the event and our community. You may see it here: Youthful Wonder: Life Lessons From Children

Here is a very interesting study of the activities of Rabb Simon Glazer, who was the Chief Rabbi of the  in Kansas City from 1920-1923.  At a very different time in American Jewish life, he accomplished several groundbreaking initiatives in his short time here in the areas of communal structure and philanthropy, education, kashrut, and […]

(for those who haven’t seen this fascinating tidbit that has been circulating… ) Next year features an anomaly for American Jews – The first day of Hanukkah coincides with Thanksgiving, on 11/28/2013. I was curious how often this happens. It turns out that it has never happened before…and it will never happen again. Thanksgiving is […]

Today, Tuesday of  ParshatBeshalach, the Torah portion Beshalach is a special day. Chazal our Sages tell us that it is extremely prudent to utilize this day to pray for parnassah, livelihood. It is a widespread and accepted custom to recite “ParshatHamonn,” the portion in the Torah that describes the way Hashem  provided the manna for the Jewish people in the desert. This can be found […]

End of (Our) Days   Yaakov had great foresight and was always looking ahead to the future.  In fact he even had a glimpse into the “End of Days,” the times of Mashiach and wished to share what he knew with his children. The beginning of the Parsha is completely סתומה, closed.  The Midrash comments that this is […]

Please spread the word about my new class series starting next week.  Click here for more information: Unlocking the Gates of Prayer

In the Parsha of Vayigash, in a moment we have been greatly anticipating, Yosef reveals his identity to his brothers.  “I am Joseph, is my father still alive?”  His brothers could hardly answer him, the Torah tells us, because they were so taken aback to realize this was Yosef their brother. The Midrash, however, supplies […]

http://www.lookstein.org/articles/veten_tal.htm We begin requesting rain in the Diaspora on the 60th day of the fall season, as approximated by Shmuel in the Talmud (Taanit 10a, Eiruvin 56a). This year we began inserting V’ten Tal U’matar l’vracha in our Amida the night of Tuesday, December 4th. For more information about this calculation, follow the link above., […]