Reflections on Ritual and Prayer

From the desk of our Ritual Director Gordon Goldman

• FINDING TORAH AND INSPIRATION IN ADVERSITY
  FINDING TORAH AND INSPIRATION IN ADVERSITY My wife and I, along with several other people from our community, traveled to Israel recently for a wedding. Most of the people reading this essay have heard all or parts of the story of this trip/adventure. The war with Iran broke out. Our eight-day trip became eighteen days. The ...
• WHY READ THE BOOK OF RUTH DURING SHAVUOT?
  HOW ARE MEGILLAT RUTH AND SHAVUOT CONNECTED There are several holidays when one the “megillot” included in the Ketuvim section of the TaNaKh, (the Hebrew Bible) is read in conjunction with the holiday. Most notably is the reading of the book of Esther during Purim. We also read Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) at the end of Sukkot and ...
• REFLECTION ON PESACH
  REFLECTIONS ON PESACH Passover (Pesach) is an intriguing, and, in some ways conflicting) holiday. Some people get so absorbed in the physical preparations that they forget the real religious aspect of what we are observing and celebrating. All the folks (sadly, mostly women) who are responsible for the pre-Pesach cleaning, shopping and food preparation feel so ...
• TERUMAH: MAKING A SACTUARY FOR GOD TO DWELL WITHIN US
  TERUMAH: MAKE FOR  ME A SANCTUARY (How does this apply today) At the beginning of Parashat Teruma, starting at Shemot (Exodus) Chapter 25, God tell Moses to tell the Israelite people to bring God gifts as their hearts move them. These gifts of various valuables whether precious metals, cloths, fragrant oils and the such are to be ...
• IGNORE HISTORY AT YOUR OWN RISK
  IGNORE YOUR HISTORY AT YOUR RISK The second book of the Torah, Shemot, tells us that a new king arose in Egypt who did not know Joseph. How could he not know Joseph? Surely, having ascended to the throne after Joseph’s death, he did not now Joseph personally, but, even if he was a few generations ...
• WHY IS ABRAHAM A GREATER MAN THAN NOAH?
  WHAT MAKES ABRAHAM BETTER THAN NOAH There seems to be a general consensus that Abraham was a better man, better human being than Noah. I do not believe that we should dismiss Noah as a Tzaddik, a righteous person, however. Noah, imperfect though he MIGHT have been, still serves as a role model. In Sefer B’reishit (Genesis) ...
• IT’S ALL CONNECTED
  IT’S ALL CONNECTED Sometimes, to most of us, the various holidays and observances in the Jewish calendar seem unrelated to each other. They feel like each is discreet and stand-alone. We might say, in early March “ok, Purim is coming” and start to think of Hamentashen and megillah reading. Or, in December we think about preparing ...