Once it happened that a young boy from a small village came to a big town for the first time. He stopped at an inn, on the outskirts of the town. Suddenly he heard the sound of a bugle. He asked the innkeeper what it meant. “Whenever we have a fire,” the innkeeper explained to the lad, “we sound the bugle, and the fire is quickly put out.” “How wonderful!” thought the village lad. “What a surprise and sensation I will bring to my village!” Thereupon, the young boy went and bought himself a bugle. When he returned to his…
Honorable Mensch-ion
Bless the Broken Road
The Talmud teaches that atop of King David’s bed, hung a harp. As soon as midnight would arrive, a northerly wind would blow upon the strings of the harp and cause it to play itself. The music would awaken King David from his slumber and he would arise to study Torah until the break of dawn. This Saturday evening, we follow the study habits of King David. We will gather at Sinai Temple for our Selichot service, the prayers recited the week before Rosh Hashana. We pray that our sacred music will awaken our souls to do the hard work…
A Simple T-Shirt
While scrolling my Twitter feed after Hurricane Harvey’s landfall, I saw a post by University of Houston basketball coach, Kelvin Sampson. He made a simple ask. Send 20 t-shirts to Houston. On my bookshelf, I spotted 20 leftover T-shirts from our Sinai Temple Basketball Camp and I felt the urge to help. By the end of the day, these t-shirts were Houston bound. I will never know who will wear these shirts, and the recipients will not have heard of Sinai Temple. In our Torah we learn the mitzvah of a hashavat aveida, returning lost property. Yet, watching the news…
If Only…
I was in line for frozen yogurt last night minding my own business as the customer in front of me started to gossip and use inappropriate language. She noticed the kippah on my head, and said out loud, “I shouldn’t be speaking like this!!!” After I told her I was a Rabbi, the conversation switched to theology. She had the urge to tell me that four years ago, her father passed away suddenly. She looked at me as I was about to order and said, “Rabbi, you really believe in God when you hear things like this?” This week we started…
See For Yourself
In a Philadelphia shopping mall this week, a large sign hanging from the ceiling read, “Seeing is believing.” Today, driving through Lancaster, Pennsylvania I noticed church after church with membership advertisements One read, “God knows you…but do you know God?” I could not help but think of the first word of our parsha, Reeh, meaning “See!” See the difference between the blessings and curses that God puts before us. The Talmud teaches that hearing is not comparable to seeing. We cognitively comprehend the difference between hearing and seeing. When we watch the news from afar and see a tragedy afflict…
God as Coach
The modern theologian Rabbi Neil Gilman once assigned our Rabbinical school class this task: Create your own God metaphor. We were required to ask the same question that we ask our own toddlers, “What does God look like to you?” The artists in the class drew a picture, and the poets composed poems. I came up with something different. With a passion for sports, I described God as a coach. When a team is winning, it is the coach who is in the shadows. The players often receive the credit for what happens on the court. Yet, when the chips…
Rabbi, You’re Not Twelve Years Old Anymore
I paid a visit to an orthopedist this week after complaining too much that my foot hurt. I was certain that I had a sports injury. Surprisingly, the doctor gave me the all clear, but he also told me, “Rabbi you’re not twelve years old anymore.”
Summer Camp
It is hard to describe the feeling of welcoming in Shabbat. You must experience it in order to be able to describe it. That is because welcoming in Shabbat is not only a thought in our minds, but an action of our bodies and souls.
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