Kedoshim – 5779 Leviticus 19:1 – 20:27 The Talmudic rabbis play a game of wits where one says, ‘I can sum up the entire Torah in just seven verses.’ Then another does it in six, and so on all the way down to one. Hillel wins by restating the Golden Rule: “What is hateful to […]

B’nei Yisrael (From the May 2019 Temple Beth Ami Chadashot)  Each year, our confirmands ascend the bimah on the festival of Shavuot to formally confirm their place as part of Beth Ami and the Jewish people. During the service, they will read statements about what it means to them to be Jewish. For many, hearing […]

Acharei Mot – 5779 Leviticus 16:1-34 It may still be Passover, but our weekly Torah portion is about to redirect our attention to Yom Kippur. Acharei Mot describes the sacrificial service for Yom Kippur as it was thousands of years ago, and although we no longer follow this rite, there is still much we can […]

Pesach 1 – 5779 Exodus 12:21 – 51; Numbers 20:16 – 25 “And Egypt bore down on the people [of Israel] to hurry to send them off from the land, for they said, ‘We are all dead men.’ And the people carried off their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls wrapped in their […]

Metzorah – 5779 Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33 Rabbi Bonnie Koppell teaches: “God creates the world through speech, as we also create our own world through the power of our words.” Although parashat Metzorah seems to be about skin disease and household mold on the surface, our tradition has long held that it is really about […]

Tazria – 5779 Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59 Tazria scares me. It always has. It is the rare person indeed who gets excited at the prospect of reading about oozy or bloody bodily emissions, but that is the topic of our parasha this week. Even more, the opening verses appear to be blatantly misogynist, adding another […]