You donât want to get on Godâs bad side. When God chooses to take action, God acts as jury, judge, and executioner. Even though the Midrash tells us that when we pass away, the sins that youâve committed act as your prosecutor, and the mitzvot that you did create angels that come to your...
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Last weekend (January 19-21) was an amazing weekend for us. We started with having Neshama Carlebach as our "Scholar-in-Residence" for our last weekend in Congregation B’nai Israel’s building on Kenwood Boulevard. Neshama did a beautiful job of leading the Kabbalat Shabbat service (our Hazzan, Jamie Gloth, led Ma’ariv). We had an excellent dinner with...
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Do you believe in miracles? If you saw a mamash miracle, would it firm up your faith in God? This week’s Torah reading, Va’era, is all about miracles. The poor abused Hebrew people – our spiritual and physical ancestors – were languishing in slavery in Mitzrayim, Egypt, the “straits” or a constrained place. A...
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Pharaoh was the world’s first anti-Semite. The Egyptians were the first people to persecute the Jews as a people. This week’s Torah reading, Shemot, the opening of the book of Exodus, tells us “And they made their lives bitter with hard slavery, in mortar, and in brick, and in all kinds of service in...
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Vayechi. The name of this week’s parsha means “And he lived.” This week’s parsha begins by telling us that Jacob lived in Egypt 17 years, and he lived a total of 147 years. In an echo of parshat Chayye Sarah, which means “the life of Sarah” and is about her death, this week’s Torah...
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The News Blog suggests that Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic rant is one of the top ten stories of 2006: "Americans like to pretend that racism, and anti-semitism is part of the past. Mel Gibson, despite being the son of one of America’s most prominent Holocaust deniers, hid it well over the years. Then he slipped...
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