The Heart of Jerusalem
05/25/2017 05:48:39 PM
The Heart of Jerusalem
Rabbi Ed Feinstein
Upon hearing that the paratroopers had fought their way to the heart of old Jerusalem, Shlomo Gorin, the chief Rabbi of the Israel Defense Force, donned a flak jacket and proceeded to the Temple Mount, where he announced to the Jewish people worldwide, “Ha-habayit B'yadaynu -- The heart of Jerusalem is ours!” That was fifty years ago this week. The Six...Read more...
Not With Anger. Not With Bitterness.
04/20/2017 02:24:34 PM
Not With Anger. Not With Bitterness.
Rabbi Ed Feinstein
The sixteenth century rabbi, Rabbi Yehuda Loew of Prague, received word of an imminent pogrom, an attack on his community driven by a vicious blood libel. He prayed for divine help. In a dream, he saw ten Hebrew words forming an alphabetical acrostic: “Create a Golem of Clay, Destroy Those Tearing Israel's Heart.”
He spent the next seven days...Read more...
Even When We Argue: A Spiritual Discipline for Troubled Times
03/16/2017 01:55:30 PM
Even When We Argue: A Spiritual Discipline for Troubled Times
Rabbi Ed Feinstein
To become a rabbi, I spent a lot of time studying Talmud. Talmud study is the literary equivalent of a boisterous Shabbos dinner table. It's all arguments: Hillel against Shammai; Rabbi Akiba against Rabbi Yishmael. The arguments emerge from the shared search for moral truth -- the tug-a-war between the Bible's lofty ideals and the hard realities...Read more...
Jump!
02/09/2017 02:00:23 PM
Jump!
Rabbi Ed Feinstein
It is the Torah's most exciting, most cinematic story. The Israelites, newly freed from slavery, camped at the shores of the Sea when suddenly the sounds Pharaoh's approaching chariots filled the air. Realizing they were trapped, the ex-slaves cried bitterly to Moses, "Were there too few graves in Egypt, that you brought us to die here?!" (Exodus 14:11) Moses prayed for deliverance, and was commanded:...Read more...
A Time to Cast Away Stones
01/05/2017 12:58:45 PM
A Time to Cast Away Stones
They come to the cemetery with a pocketful of stones to be left on the gravesite. Once I've recited the tradition's prayers and a few words of memory, they dutifully place the stones on the marker. But I can see in their faces that the stones they carry home are so much bigger than those left behind. Tiny pebbles are left on the grave marker, but boulders remain on the heart: rocks of hardened bitterness,...Read more...
The Politics of Exclusion
12/01/2016 04:32:11 PM
Pity Esau. One moment of weakness, one momentary impulse, and his birthright is gone. He rushes to fulfill his father's dying wish for a savory meal, and while he's out hunting, his mother and brother conspire to rob him of his blessing. Returning to his father with the feast, expecting at last to gain his due, he is met with his father's empty excuses. And so he cries: "Have you but one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father!" And Esau wept...Read more...
Echad. Regaining Oneness.
08/24/2016 02:35:55 PM
Every Shabbat morning, I spend a few moments with an old friend. Rabbi Arye Yehuda Alter, the Gerrer Rebbe, was leader of a Hasidic community in Warsaw before the first world war. Through his wonderful book, Sefat Emet, we share a little of Shabbat learning together. Here is what he taught me one day:
“The proclamation of oneness that we declare each day in saying, Shema Yisrael, needs to be understood as it truly is. The meaning...Read more...
What Do I Say to My Child? What Do I Say to Myself?
06/15/2016 01:36:20 PM
I watch the news for a few minutes, and then I turn it off. It's just too painful. It's too painful to witness the tears and sobs for loved ones murdered so brutally. It's too frustrating to listen to the story retold over and again " the unstable young man radicalized to hate, the easy access of military-grade weaponry, the feckless politicians rehearsing their talking points. The evil of it all is just too hard to...Read more...
Of Roosters and Rebbes
05/18/2016 03:19:18 PM
I offer my blessings of congratulations to all of today's graduates and their families, and my gratitude for allowing me to share this precious moment in your lives. I want to express a special note of congratulations to those, like me, who are the first in your family to graduate from college. Your accomplishment is a special pride to your entire family. And to the rabbis who will be ordained tomorrow evening, my blessings of...Read more...
Celebrating the Blessings of a Sacred Community
05/11/2016 01:06:10 PM
According to the Torah, the ancient wizard Balaam was commissioned by the King of Moab to curse the Israelites to keep them from overrunning his kingdom. But when Balaam stood on a hilltop overlooking the Israelite camp, only words of blessing came to him, words we recite daily in our prayers:
“How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel.”
Standing on ground level, surrounded by the...Read more...
Thu, November 21 2024
20 Cheshvan 5785
