As I look at our students during the final days of school before the summer, I am reminded of the Israelites standing at the border of the Promised Land. Behind them are the trials and toils that marked their trek through the desert, the hard work that characterized...
Vaccinating Teachers: The Moral Imperative
It is difficult for some to understand the outcry of teachers in Quebec asking to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Prioritizing one guild over another grates against our societal sense of equity. We do understand that preference may go to those most vulnerable, such...
New Beginnings
This week we begin the annual Torah reading cycle, starting with the creation of the world in the first chapter of Genesis. Standard English translations, based primarily on non-Jewish sources, render the first words of our parasha, “In the beginning, God created the...
The Call to God
The Content of our Character The most ancient of all of the prayers for the High Holidays has a special connection to The Akiva School. Avinu Malkeinu is almost 2,000 years old, yet its central words have remained unchanged. Akiva’s founder, Rabbi David Hartman,...
Acheinu Kol Beit Yisrael
On Thursday mornings in synagogue, we recite a prayer that begins with the words, “Acheinu kol beit yisrael—Our brethren, all the House of Israel.” The tefillah offers the image of all Jews living as siblings in the same home, caring for each other as brothers and...Akiva Calendar
Experience Akiva
Donate
Rabbi Grossman’s Blog Corner
Rabbi Grossman's Corner
The Spirit of Judah
Court of Justice
Rabbi David Hartman, founder of The Akiva School, was known in Montreal and throughout the Jewish world as a powerful preacher, intrepid cleric, popular philosopher, and institution builder. He was also an exceptional basketball player. Rabbi Hartman grew up in...
Message from the Head of School
Everyone thrives on routine. We have weekly, monthly, and daily cycles and routines that give life a sense of order and purpose. Getting up each morning is eased by the fact that I know exactly the steps I must take from the time my alarm rings to the time I am at...
A Message of Redemption from the Jewish People to the World
As we prepare to sit down to our seders this year, I want to point out two peculiarities about the Pesach haggadah. The haggadah is supposed to tell the story of the liberation from Egypt. And yet, at no point in the seder do we ever just tell this story. ...
A Day of Hope and Renewal
Today is Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the first day of the new Hebrew month of Nisan. It marks the new moon of the month that ushers in the season of renewal, called Aviv in the Torah. In the time of the Bible, this month was the first month of the new year (the Jewish year...
Coronavirus Update – Message from Rabbi Grossman
ונִשְׁמַרְתֶּם מְאֹד לְנַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם Protect your bodies most carefully! Reading these words in Deuteronomy 4:9, our sages determined that there is a Torah obligation to be vigilant about our physical health in addition to our spiritual wellbeing. In following this...
The Limits and Loci of Jewish Education
Chidushim B’Chinuch—Insights into Education Fourteenth of an Ongoing Series When we speak about Jewish education, we most likely have in mind the Jewish day school. Especially here in Montreal, where Jewish schools have been strong, successful, popular and...
A Double Mitzvah
Tu B’shevat is a time when modern Jews consider their responsibility towards the environment and God’s world, as I pointed out in my last column. Inspired by a number of Akiva students who have taken it upon themselves to spearhead grassroots environmental efforts at...
The Values of Education
Chidushim B’Chinuch—Insights into Education Thirteenth of an Ongoing Series This Monday was Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish Arbor Day or New Year of the Trees. In modern times, Tu B’Shevat has become a day of ecological awareness, the Jewish Earth Day. In Hebrew schools, Tu...
School and Society
Chidushim B’Chinuch—Insights into Education Twelfth of an Ongoing Series Last week we explored Plato’s proposal for compulsory education, the goal of which is to develop in the child a balanced soul that reaches its potential. Plato called this ideal the Virtuous...