My Jewish Journey
Deborah Abecassis Warshawsky, Director of Jewish Life and Learning, shares insights on lessons from the Torah, Jewish customs and traditions and inspirational thoughts for personal growth.
Parashat Tzav – Dvar Torah
By Guest Blogger: Bonnie Levine, Akiva parent and Board MemberOver the last several years our family has rented a home in the Laurentians during the winter months. We relish our time together at this special little hideaway, spending quality time with our...
Parasha Shlach – Developing a Growth Mind Set
This week's Dvar Torah is by Akiva grade 4 teacher, Yelena Plis, which she gave as part of her speech at a reception held in her honour this week in recognition of receiving the Grinspoon Award for Excellence in Jewish Education... By Yelena Plis This week's Parasha...
PARASHAT SHELACH LEKHA – All about Challah
In this week’s parashah, God tells Moses to instruct the Israelites that when they enter the land of Israel and they bake bread, they must set aside a portion for God. And you eat of the bread of the land, you shall set aside as a gift to the Lord: as the first yield...
Parashat Nasso
This week, I'd like to refer to an article written on the "My Jewish Learning" Blog: Parents as Models
Parashat Bamidbar
My daughter was working on a French assignment – reading a previously unseen text and answering questions. One of the questions provided the first sentence of a couplet and asked the student to write a rhyming second line. “When am I ever going to have to do...
Parshat Behar-Bechukotai
For this week's D'var Torah, I'd like to refer to a great article from the Jewish Journey Project website. Shabbat Shalom! Parshat Behar-Bechukotai - Shabbat Table Talk
Parashat Emor – Say it like you mean it.
Do you ever feel like the words you impart to your children hang in the air above them, never quite penetrating their brains (and conscience)? I imagine them hanging there, floating like a balloon that slowly sinks to the ground as it deflates. And then trampled on...
Parashat Acharei Mot – Kedoshim – The Heart of the Torah
This week’s double portion falls approximately in the middle of Leviticus, the middle of the 5 books of the Torah. And just about in the middle of this double parshah is the commandment – ve-ahavta le-re’ekha kamokha – love your fellow as you love yourself. Treat...
Parashat Tazria-Metzora – by Yaffa Epstein
For this week, I would like to share the following D'var Torah by Yaffa Epstein. Yaffa Epstein lives in Jerusalem and is blessed to teach Talmud, Jewish Law, and Liturgy at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. Yaffa is a recovering lawyer, and is currently poring...
Learning from a Sandwich – Parashat Sh’mini
D'VAR TORAH BY: ROBERT TORNBERG This week's parashah, Sh'mini, consists of three distinct parts that do not appear, on the surface, to relate directly to one to another. Let's begin by looking at a summary of each of these parts. The first section of this portion...
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Rabbi Grossman’s Blog Corner
Rabbi Grossman's Corner
A knife to Canadian Jews – The Times of Israel Blog Post
(Post appearing in The Times of Israel Blog, March 11th, 2024) As an opening gambit in their war against the Jews, in the early 1930s the Nazis ended shechitah, Jewish ritual slaughter. At a time when antisemitic incidents reminiscent of pre-war Germany are exploding...
Morality from the Sewers
As appeared in The Times of Israel Blog... Visiting the Dachau concentration camp on a trip to Germany this summer, I was drawn to an exhibit on Nazi medical experimentation that illustrated the brutal procedures performed on inmates at Dachau and other camps during...
Rosh Hashanah Message from the Head of School 2023
Same Time, Next Year We are familiar with the story of Jews and Egyptian oppression: The suffering slaves flee their bondage and escape to the desert where God speaks to them and makes them a great nation. This story also appears in the Torah reading of Rosh...
Akiva High Holiday Message 2022
Not by Punishment For our annual Father’s Day outing this June I asked my sons if I could take them to the Kingston Penitentiary. They agreed, but only after my assurance that they would be returning with me to Montreal afterward, and that the prison has been...
Message from Rabbi Grossman – Long Live the Queen
In antiquity, the passing of years was numbered by the reign of the living monarch, thus we find in the Bible, “In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel (1 Kings 15:9),” or “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia (Ezra 1:1).” The death of a sovereign meant...
Elijah and our Children: No Trouble at All
Any child who has been called a troublemaker can take comfort in being the victim of the same accusation that was hurled against Elijah the Prophet (Eliyahu HaNavi). Ahab, the wicked King of Israel, dubbed Elijah the “Troubler of Israel” for opposing his policies of...
Sanctuary and Sacrifice – Message from the Head of School
The Torah contains an odd number of books perhaps in order that one book be in the middle and thus allow us to say: here is the center of God’s message to us. That book is Leviticus, and its central message is Sanctuary and Sacrifice. Leviticus, which we begin to...
Chanukkah Message – A Small Glimmer of Light
The world seems to have become very dark. As we enter the winter months the darkness of night encroaches upon day, stealing increasing minutes of light each week. Were we not to understand the cycle of the sun, we would fear, like the ancients, that darkness would...
When They Call On Me, I Will Answer Them
There is much to celebrate this week. As Jews in Quebec, the past days have been filled with bounty and blessing. COVID cases are at record lows, and vaccination rates are high. The province and its businesses are opening up, and restrictions are down. We are...
The Tragedy in Meron – A Message from Rabbi Grossman
I have set before you today life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life. (Deuteronomy 30:19) When given the choice, the Torah tells us to choose life and blessing over death and curse. While this may seem obvious, the world of ancient Israel was filled with pagan...