A d’var Torah on Shabbat Nachamu Clarence Office, Jr., of Miami, FL, served in the U.S. Army for three years in the 1970s and was honorably discharged. Like many veterans, Clarence tragically fell into drug use and was arrested for drug offenses. He served a prison term and paid his debt to society. Clarence now...
According to the Netziv, the brit is meant as a healing salve. God knows the ways committing acts of violence may leave a permanent scar on those who commit them. Perhaps God is speaking from experience.
Commentary on Parshat Bamidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) Our Torah portion opens with the taking of another census of B’nai Yisrael – the Children of Israel – this time “listed by their clans, ages 20 years and up, all those in Israel who are able to bear arms…” (Num. 1:2) This is census number three since the...
It was not what one might call a typical Jewish family. She was a single mother with three children. One was a teenager and two were under five years old. Each child had a different father and the woman was living on SSI. The teenager had gone through our religious school and was now attending...
To stand for human dignity means not only insisting on the right to basic survival needs, but the right to live fully — to experience joy, pleasure, love, friendship, beauty.
A d’var Torah for Simchat Torah. Rabbi Avi Katz Orlow is the Vice President at the Foundation for Jewish Camp. He has a deep love of irreverent, relevant, and revealing Torah and blogs religiously at saidtomyself.com. Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson is Director of Rabbinic Training at T’ruah and the editor of Torah 20/20. Rabbi...
The window – where the dove returns with an olive branch – is about hope and connection. The window is an escape from the crushing waves of the endless news cycle of fear and violence. The window is a possibility of change – of redemption.
Figuring out how to be good in a world with so many choices It was 2 am, and I was awake, lying on the concrete floor of a church’s basement choir room. A few hours earlier I had been in the hallway outside of this room, serving food to men and women who needed a...
Commentary on Parshat Beshalach (Exodus 13:17 – 17:16) As the crowd surged in front of me, I felt completely out of my depth. I had joined with members of my interfaith clergy group at a rally in the aftermath of a mass shooting. We were supposed to open the gathering with a blessing, but none...