Hear Our Voice

If you’ve read even a few of my blog posts, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that I am a little obsessed with the ancient Israelites’ penchant for kvetching. With the story of the Exodus from Mitzrayim (Eygpt) and their 40-year wandering through the midbar (wilderness) so prominent in 4 of the 5 Books of Moses, their moaning, groaning and constant trope of “woe-as-us” ever streaming from their lips, is either a serious...Read more...

A couple of nights ago, I sat with 7 couples raising Jewish children.  Of these seven couples, only one of them consisted of two Jewish partners.  In the other six couples raising Jewish children, one individual in each partnership with the “Jewish pedigree” had been disaffected, disconnected, or simply distanced from their Judaism.  Do you know what brought them back and into this living room?  The fact that they fell...Read more...

Hillel and Shammai, two of our towering rabbinic figures, didn’t agree on much. Shammai was a stickler for rules and Hillel was far more flexible. Shammai drew a line in the sand and Hillel would find a way around it while still respecting the spirit of the law. The Rabbis asked if despite their great division, were their children allowed to marry each other. The answer was a resounding yes, for they were still Jews, they were still...Read more...

I won’t be able to articulate this illustrative metaphor with the poetry and flair of its author, Leonard Pitts, but it certainly bears repeating, especially today, as we honor Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. Last night at an MLK Commemoration, columnist Leonard Pitts spoke on the divide that exists between white people and black people in terms of their often vastly divergent views of the state of racial equality in our country. He explained...Read more...

OK, I get it. The person who works in the cubicle next to you, in the office down the hall, in the classroom or in the board room, or uses the locker next to you, or whom you’ve considered “unfriending” is just too much for you.   You know who I’m talking about. Because, well, he/she just bugs you. Maybe it’s their voice, maybe it’s bad past experiences, maybe it’s something else. But it’s not realistic that he or she...Read more...

CSK says, “Join us…You already belong.”  I remember throwing this out to my good friend, David, who, as an Ad Exec, was very much used to a process of growth and development when it came to helping a client come up with the right “sales pitch.”  He told me that usually this process should take months, and sometimes even longer.  But, he also said that sometimes the perfect pitch presents itself because it’s a simple...Read more...

No matter how many times I have journeyed through this period of the year, it always seems to catch me off guard. Tomorrow night is the 9th of Av, Tisha b’Av, and as some are aware, this day is the Jewish people’s national day of mourning. Harkening back to the year 586 BCE, when the ancient Temple in Jerusalem lay in ruins, and the Prophet Jeremiah, sat in sackcloth and ashes, dumbfounded by the pity he felt for himself, for his people...Read more...

Yankele was watching his father, a Rabbi, write one of his shabbes speeches. “How do you know what to say, Daddy?” Yankele asked. “Why, son, God tells me”, said the Rabbi. “Oh, then why do you keep crossing things out?

I understand that “crossing out” issue.  “Speaking for God” is an attribute that, when I hear one Rabbi say, he does, I find it a bit scary, but when I hear another Rabbi say that he doesn’t, I...Read more...

While I hope to see you when CSK will be celebrating Purim tomorrow night and the next (3-24 & 3-25), it is true that the official date of Purim (14th of Adar) begins this evening. And if you happen to be a little “Type A” about observing the holiday on its official date, I have a recommendation for how to observe Purim tonight without having to go to a synagogue. There are 4 official commandments for Purim. They are: hearing the...Read more...

There is a moment in the Torah when a man named Korach speaks out and against Moses. In the middle of the desert, backed by two hundred fifty malcontented former slaves, Korach challenges Moses with these words:

“You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Lord is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourself above the Lord’s congregation?” (Numbers 16:3)

Now, one could make the argument...Read more...