Rabbi Guzik - A Bisl Torah

Growing up, my parents groaned if I used the excuse, “But everyone is doing it,” or “Everyone is going!” They made it clear that I did not belong to the club of “everyone.”

Joy is embedded within the name of the final holiday: Simhat Torah. We end the reading of one cycle of Torah and begin reading the Torah over again. There is a feeling of elation knowing that we have the ability to witness a continuing, evolving Judaism. That through the turbulence and turmoil of the world, the practice of reading, studying, and living Torah survives. For that, we celebrate. For that, we dance.

Rabba Sara Hurwitz speaks about the surprising reference to the sukkah in the Birkat Hamazon, the blessing after the meal during the holiday of Sukkot. The blessing says, “May God establish for us the fallen sukkah of David.” She wonders why we reference the desire for a fallen sukkah. Isn’t that kind of request counter intuitive? Who wants to embody a fallen sukkah?

Rabba Sara Hurwitz speaks about the surprising reference to the sukkah in the Birkat Hamazon, the blessing after the meal during the holiday of Sukkot. The blessing says, “May God establish for us the fallen sukkah of David.” She wonders why we reference the desire for a fallen sukkah. Isn’t that kind of request counter intuitive? Who wants to embody a fallen sukkah?

Wearing a tallit, a prayer shawl, on Kol Nidre is a confusing ritual.

Rosh Hashana celebrates the birth of the world. The holiday is also known as Yom Hazikaron, Day of Remembrance. How do you celebrate and remember at the same time?

There is a piece of Jewish lore about a group of Jews praying in a synagogue. The setting is Eastern Europe during a time of great antisemitism. On Rosh Hashana, as the Jews take out the Torah and begin to read the holy text, a local official bangs on the door of the shul.

It was Erev Rosh Hashana in Auschwitz and Birkenau. 1944. Rav Tzvi Hirsch Meisels and his son just arrived to the death camp.

This summer, we spent some time in New York City, where we visited the 9/11 memorial. The memorial consists of two massive waterfall pools, the surrounding perimeter donning the names of those that died.

With the murder of six hostages by Hamas, many of us have felt hope slipping away. Hersh’s parents publicly traveled the world to advocate for their son. One couldn’t help but think (perhaps naively) that their actions and their voices and their rigor would lead to bringing him home. Bringing all of them home. If anyone’s actions could do it, it would have been theirs. They tried so very hard.