When we study about Chanukah, we tend to focus on the miracle of the Menorah, and forget about the main purpose of the holiday, the victory of the Maccabees. But it is in this battle that we learn lessons about building a Jewish identity. The historical context of the...
This week I would like to share an article by Rabbi Sacks on this week's Parshat Vayeshev: Vayeshev (5771) – Speech Therapy
Each week the leadership of our school takes the time to study Torah. Our focus this year is on tefilla, the daily prayers, and we are currently studying the morning blessings. The purpose of the morning blessings is to wake us up spiritually and to enable us to be...
One of the highlights of the parsha this week is the dream of Jacob, where he has a vision of angels ascending and descending a ladder. There are multiple interpretations of this dream and its purpose in shaping the future of Jacob as the father of the nation of...
Kol Yisrael Areivim zeh bazeh. כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה I am writing to you today because our family is in mourning. We are crying together with our family in Israel for the loss of lives of fathers, grandfathers, husbands and friends, who were taken so cruelly...
We are all feeling an enormous sense of tragedy following the events of the week. Our hearts and prayers are still focused on those families. However, like the men who returned to pray the next morning in that very same synagogue, we must move forward. In the midst of...
This week’s parsha was my Bat Mitzvah parsha, (sometime in the 1970s shall we say…). As time passes and my kids get older, I reflect more on aging. I often don’t “feel” my age, and whenever I go to weddings, I still feel like a 25 year old. Right then, my kids, (and...
The theme of “Chessed”, or acts of kindness, is at the core of this week’s parsha. Avraham welcomes the three strangers into his tent with and offers them a lavish meal, freshly cooked, in a way which is above and beyond what anyone would have expected. (In the end,...
This week once again we witnessed incomprehensible acts of violence, in Israel and shockingly, also in our own province and capital. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the soldiers and victims of these acts of terror. As always, we stand behind Israel...
The book of Genesis is a book that itself could be studied over an entire year and the reader would still be left with many questions. When we study the books of the Torah and perhaps the book of Genesis in particular, we need to look at the stories and ideas on both...