Rabbi Sherman - Honorable Mensch-ion

As a family, we have searched for COVID-friendly activities to engage in during school vacation. Besides virtual entertainment, we happened upon Urban Adventure Quests, an online platform which sends you on scavenger hunts through different neighborhoods. In exploring the streets of Los Angeles just a few miles from our home, we recognized landmarks and sculptures that we never noticed, even while driving by hundreds of times in prior years. The clues given to you are extremely specific, inquiring on how many steps lead up to certain buildings, details of the architecture of City Hall facades, and questions on gorgeous murals. 

Over this pandemic, our appearances have changed: hair grown out, suits and ties shed. We have not seen each other for almost an entire year.

Our youngest child is fascinated by the Shabbat candles. He loves to watch them glow in the dark. It is a different type of light that comes from the normal ceiling light he sees everyday of the week. He was...

There are individuals that when they cross our paths we know we have been touched by an angel. When I arrived in Los Angeles in 2009, I served the community of Shomrei Torah Synagogue, where my partner in crime was...

Jewish law dictates the moments when we may interrupt our recitation of the shema. Besides times of danger or greeting a king, we must respond amen to prayers of kedusha, holiness. Yet, there is one prayer outside the holiness canon...

We learn this week “There was a famine in the land.” The Torah asks us why this needs to be mentioned? There were famines before. Nachmanides explains, “Aside from the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham:...

As we honored Veterans Day, our son taught us the custom of how veterans wear the American Flag. In order to create the image of the flag flying through the breeze, the flag is worn on the right shoulder, backwards,...

Choosing a challah is not an easy choice these days: Belgian chocolate chunk, cinnamon sugar, kalamata olive, and pretzel are only a sampling of the challot you can have on your Shabbat table. When I grew up in, it was...

When I was in 3rd grade, I learned the parsha Lech Lecha. The Rabbi looked at my classmate and shouted, “Go, Avraham, get out of here!” My friend, named Avraham, got out of his seat, and quickly exited the classroom,...

John Huibers, from the Netherlands, took 4 years and 2 months to build a replica of Noah’s Ark, which he dreams of one day floating to the land of Israel. While each year we read the story of Noah, from...