Category: Reports

  • Shavuot

    Tonight begins the festival of Shavuot, a time of joyous celebration when G-D gave Moshe the Torah on Mount Sinai. G-d has had His hand on our Jewish people over centuries of persecution, slavery and exile, but the one tangible thing that has held us together as a people is the Torah. Shavuot is in…

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  • Jephthah, the Bandit Judge

    by Rabbi Jeffrey Adler Very often, the people Adonai chooses would not make our list of acceptable candidates. Judges 11 tells us of one such individual. In the 10th chapter, Israel had, again, fallen into idolatry. 10:6 begins, “Then B’nei-Yisrael again did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes. They worshipped the Baalim, the Ashtaroth, gods…

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  • Where Is the Lamb?

    by Rabbi Jeffrey Adler The Akedah, or “binding”, is one of the most gut-wrenching incidents in Scripture. It is usually associated with the High Holy Days in the Autumn, as it is the Torah portion for Rosh haShanah, but, there are definitely aspects seriously relevant to Passover. We find the Akedah narrative in Genesis 22.…

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  • A Covenant Out of Despair

    by Rabbi Jeffrey A. Adler Genesis 15 begins with a despairing Avram. We often think of the Biblical heroes as being almost superhuman, certainly untainted by the same kinds of struggles faced by the rest of us. Instead, we find that these remarkable people were aided by the even more remarkable God. The chapter begins,…

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  • Instructions to a Son

    by Rabbi Jeffrey Adler One of the dominant patterns in Mishle, or Proverbs, is Solomon’s giving counsel to a son, possibly Rehoboam, his eventual successor, but, with his 1000 wives and concubines, one cannot be certain how many sons he had and could be addressing. In chapter 3, one of the better known passages of…

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  • Home With His People

    by Rabbi Jeffrey Adler Last week’s parshah was “T’rumah” (Exodus 25:1-27:19). The title comes from the dominant theme of the portion that Moses was to receive from the people of B’nei-Yisrael an offering, a “t’rumah”, literally, a “lifting up”. It was to be from “anyone whose heart compels him”, leaving it to individual conscience and…

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  • A Day When “Diversity” Is Exalted

    by Rabbi Jeffrey Adler We live in a day when “diversity” is exalted. To a certain extent, this can be a good thing, as people are individuals and not stamped out of a divine cookie mold. However, there is also a propensity for people to develop their own rendition of truth, totally ambivalent to the…

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  • The Real King On The Throne

    by Rabbi Jeffrey Adler In Isaiah 6, the prophet is dealing with the death of Judah’s king, Uzziah. Uzziah had been Judah”s king for 52 years, the second longest reign of all the rulers of Israel and Judah. He had also been very successful, establishing Judah as a major commercial and military force. Yet, at…

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  • Adonai “Sticks It Out” With Israel (Ezekiel 37:15-28)

    by Rabbi Jeffrey Adler Studies of Ezekiel tend to focus on the 1st half, the “vision of the valley of dry bones”. That thrilling prophecy is wonderful and profound, of course, but, the 2nd half is also a wonderful demonstration of the Divine character and God’s love and faithfulness toward Israel. Verse 15-17 reads, “The…

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  • Ezekiel 37 (Part B)

    by Rabbi Jeffrey Adler In our previous dealings with Ezekiel 37, the famous “Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones”, we saw God take the prophet to the floor of a valley filled with dead, dry bones, representing the apparent destiny of the Jewish people after centuries of our defiance of Adonai and His Torah…

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