Does the Punishment Fit the Crime?

As my 8 month old son becomes more mobile and is more interested in engaging with his 2 ½ year old sister, the discussions about pushing and hitting have ramped up in my house. What’s most frustrating is that I know my daughter loves my son. She wakes up every morning wanting to know where...
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What I Learned In Prison

About three years ago, I was called by the Head Chaplain of the Butner Federal Correction Institution located forty-five minutes north of my home in Raleigh, NC. This is the same penitentiary where (in)famous prisoners like Jonathan Pollard and Bernard Madoff currently reside. The chaplain’s message came with a southern drawl: “Rabbi, we have a...
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A Prayer for Ferguson

Help us to lie down, Dear Lord our God, in peace, and let us rise again, to life… This summer, I heard that a young black man had been killed by a police officer. The sad thing is that I tuned the story out. I was too caught up in whatever I was doing to...
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Who are YOU in the Passover story?

“…And you shall explain to your son on that day, “It is because of what Adonai did for me when I went free from Egypt…” (Exodus 13:8). From the midst of the original Exodus narrative, the text jumps suddenly forward in time, imagining you and me, future generations, retelling this sacred story in a very...
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May Your Clothes Never Wear Out

This d’var Torah is sponsored by Bob Rottenberg in honor of his good friend and sofer, Rabbi Kevin Hale of Western Massachusetts, for above-and-beyond work reconstructing his aging tefillin.  It was torture wandering in the desert, those forty years, and the Israelites let everyone know it. Over and over, throughout the books of Exodus and Numbers,...
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Not There Yet (Parshat Lech Lecha)

Commentary on Parshat Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1 – 17:27) Our third and youngest child started college this fall. She left her city, her birthplace, and the only house she has lived in. At least once a day, someone asks me, “How’s the empty nest?” The answer is complicated, because I’m not in the nest anymore...
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Expanding the Birthright (Parshat Vayechi)

Commentary on Parshat Vayechi (Genesis 47:28 – 50:26) This past summer, five participants in a Birthright Israel trip (free 10-day Israel tours offered to young adults) left the tour to visit with Palestinians on the West Bank. Their decision to do so came after receiving a map that made no effort to demarcate the Palestinian...
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Fearing G-d Means Giving No Platform to White Supremacy

With the seders behind us, we are on our way to the Red Sea. But we’re not fully free yet. On the last day of Passover, according to tradition, we find ourselves trapped, with the Red Sea in front of us and Pharoah’s army closing in from behind. Moses tells us, “Have no fear! Stand...
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