Chanukkah is one of my favorite Jewish holidays, but not for the reasons you may suspect. While I enjoy the foods, songs, and celebrations associated with the festival, every other Jewish holiday also has its own unique culinary, musical, and ritual...
Parashat Terumah – The home we build together…
At Akiva School we all work together to build something beautiful – a home for our children to learn, to grow and to thrive. This is the gift that we give to them – and to us – as we play a role in shaping our future through our children. I invite you...
Lessons to learn from Parashat Yitro
Guest Blogger: Perry Shak Akiva parent and board member What is the most valuable commodity in the world? It is Time. As we will see, this is one of the many lessons that can be learned from this weeks Parasha. Yitro priest of Midian, and Moshes’ father in...
Parashat Yitro
This week’s parashah describes the Israelites standing before Mount Sinai as they accept God’s Torah. As the ten commandments are read in synagogue this Shabbat, the congregation is asked to stand as did the Israelites in that awesome, powerful moment when God...
Parashat Beshalach – The Power of Ruach – Rabbi Sacks
This week I’d like to share a D’var Torah from Rabbi Sacks. The Power of Ruach – Rabbi Sacks Wishing everyone a wonderful Tu B’Shvat and Shabbat Shalom.
Parashat Bo – Art Speaks
On Monday, the children had the opportunity to visit the Marc Chagall exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. On Tuesday, Grade 6 had a poetry slam for parents in which they read poems they wrote inspired by Chagall paintings. In this week’s parashah, God...Akiva Calendar
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Rabbi Grossman’s Blog Corner
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Any Dream Will Do
Andrew Lloyd Webber was 17 years old when he began composing musical theater, the same age as Joseph when we first meet him in the Torah, in this week’s parasha. Joseph made Lloyd Webber famous when the play Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat...
Bilingualism as a Jewish Value
The story of Jacob’s life, which continues in this week’s Torah reading, is a swashbuckling adventure. From his theft of Esau’s birthright and blessing, the tale continues with Jacob’s furtive escape from his vengeful and murderous brother, his dream...
To Err is Human
While I deeply venerate our forefathers Abraham and Isaac, I find it difficult to relate to them. Abraham, at the age of 75, gives up everything he is familiar with in life to follow God to an unknown land, and is willing to sacrifice his only son. Isaac is obedient...
When Life Imitates Art
I walked into our Kindergarten class while they were completing one of my favorite art projects, the Shabbat Box. A Shabbat Box is a shoebox-sized receptacle containing all of the basics for making Shabbat: A Kiddush cup, challah cover, booklet of...
You Belong
I echo the words of the Psalmist, imo anochi b’tzarah—I am with you in your sorrow. I join the voices of the people of Pittsburgh, Jews and decent people everywhere, in pain and distress over the events of this past Shabbat. Imo anochi b’tzarah, I am...
Shabbat has kept the Jews
“It may be said without exaggeration that more than the Jews have kept the Sabbath, it is the Sabbath that has kept the Jews.” So wrote Asher Zvi Ginsberg in his celebrated 1898 essay, “Shabbes and Zionism.” This quip became the writer’s most famous...
History Repeats Itself
In this week’s Torah portion we are introduced to the first Israelites—Abraham and his family. Abraham and these early Israelites go down to Egypt because there is a famine in the Land of Canaan/Israel; when they get to Egypt, Abraham is afraid that he,...
Message from the Head of School – October 12, 2018
Life has returned to normal, and this can be of some concern. With the end of the Jewish holiday season, topped off this year by Thanksgiving, the series of feasts and fasts, celebrations and commemorations has finally finished. Gone are the three-day...
Message from the Head of School – October 4th, 2018
The story of the Garden of Eden, which we read this week in synagogue, certainly ends badly. The first man and woman disobey the one command of their Creator and are exiled forever from paradise. For millennia, Jewish (and Christian) commentators have looked to the...