You may think that this week's Torah portion, Vayeira, and Charles Dickens' classic novel, A Tale of Two Cities, may seem worlds apart, yet both share a profound exploration of morality, faith, and the consequences of unchecked evil.  In both narratives, we encounter cities on the brink of moral

This year, Yom Kippur and Shabbat fall on the same day. A blessing for any rabbi because it gives so much Torah to choose from in writing this Shabbat message. Over the course of the 25-hour holiday (from sundown on Friday through Havdallah on Saturday) we’ll read excerpts from

Over this past weekend, I was looking to put something on my TV as background noise while I got some cleaning done. I was perusing Netflix and came across a mini-series called “The Testament of Moses.” I’ve already watched the series, which focuses on telling the beginning of Moses’

Remember the heartwarming 1993 film Homeward Bound, where Golden Retriever Shadow, Mutt Chance, and Himalayan cat Sassy – a courageous pack of animals – embark on a perilous journey to reunite with their family? Parashat Chukat might seem entirely disconnected from the modern animal adventure, but I think it

This week, we study, read, and learn from Parashat Beha’alotcha. And it's always one of those portions that when it comes back in our reading cycle  I have A little bit of a flashback too. Once upon a time, I spent an entire semester an HUC-JIR studying just this

When I’m feeling stressed I start picturing a specific GIF in my head. It’s a GIF that is meant to help the viewer focus their attention and breathing. This particular one begins as a single dot, expands to a line, then a triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, and lastly,

This Shabbat we have a lot going on! Musician and Educator Noah Aronson is joining us all weekend long, we have our annual chocolate seder for elementary school kids, J-Quest, concerts, learning…so much going on! And, because Rabbi Cohen wrote about most of our Torah topic last week (the

If nothing else, this past months’ worth of parshiyot has made one thing clear...God is a detail fanatic. Everything in God's house has an exact place, an exact measurement, a perfect set of assembly instructions. The instruction manual for the Tent of Meeting, the Mishkan, and its contents that

Do you know why we dress the Torah the way we do? Ever looked closely at the decorative clothing and wondered about the story behind it?  When I take classes or groups to see the Torah, they’re always so fascinated by the scroll itself: the materials it’s made of,

I’ve had two settings of a prayer on repeat lately as I listen to music on my way to temple. The prayer begins “Ilu finu malei shirat ka’yam,” “If only our mouths were as full of song as the sea…” and the composers are Miriam Margles and Josh Warshawsky.