Shoftim 5872 Deut. 16:18 – 21:9 Rabbi Gary Pokras  Torah exists to a great extent to teach us how to create just communities, and this week’s parasha is a focal point towards that end. “Tzedek, tzedek, tirdof – Justice, justice, you shall pursue” [Deut. 16:20] is one of the foundational verses of Torah, yet how […]

Re’eh 5782 Duet. 11:26-16:17 Rabbi Baht Yameem Weis  “If there is a needy person among you, one of your kin in any of your settlements in the land that the Eternal your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kin.  Rather you must open your hand […]

Ekev 5872 Deut. 7:12 – 11:25 Rabbi Gary Pokras  There is an old joke that Jews will rarely miss an opportunity to take something simple, and then make it complicated and counterintuitive. Take for example, the mealtime blessings. In the Christian world, it is common for one person at the table to compose a detailed […]

VaEtchanan 5872 Deut. 3:23 – 7:11 Rabbi Gary Pokras    “You shall the love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your stregth.” [Deut. 6:5]  What does it mean to love God with everything we have?   For years I have struggled to find the answer, and to be […]

D’varim 5782 Deut. 1:1 – 3:22 Rabbi Jack Luxemburg    “Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, Zim, Anu D’varim..”  Not a line of Torah from this week’s portion, D’varim (Deut. 1:1-3 – 3:22), but a line from a Hebrew children’s song.  It means, “Zoom, Zoom, Zoom Zim, we are bees!”.   Something that has always interested me is that […]

Mattot/Mas’ei 5782 Num. 30:2 – 36:13 Rabbi Gary Pokras    As we approach the end of the book of Numbers, the entire community of Israel is encamped on the east bank of the Jordan river – directly across from the Promised Land. They have wandered for nearly forty years through the Wilderness, and they have […]