Let there be love.
09/12/2018 12:55:01 PM
Let there be love.
© Rabbi Noah Farkas
Rosh Hashanah 5779/2018
It was once said that Judaism is a tradition of minimum text and maximal interpretation. Take these three words from the book of Leviticus “V'ahavtah l'rechah kamocha” Love your neighbor as yourself. (Lev. 19:18). How clear can that be? How straight forward? How simple, how universal? “V'ahavtah l'rechah kamocha”...Read more...
God is a Poem
08/28/2018 11:05:18 AM
God is a Poem
Rabbi Noah Farkas
How literal is faith? The other night I was at a shiva minyan and I was asked by one of the family members how could one pray for miracles that don't not exist? I took a deep breath, knowing that others wanted to speak to me and said that I don't believe in the supernatural like turning water into blood or splitting the sea, and I'm not sure that God...Read more...
Invocation for Assembly Member Jesse Gabriel
06/13/2018 10:49:48 AM
Invocation for Assembly Member Jesse Gabriel
June 11, 2018
Rabbi Noah Farkas
Good morning. I am Rabbi Noah Farkas, I am one of the rabbis at Valley Beth Shalom, a Conservative Jewish Synagogue in Encino.
In a letter to James Lloyd on...Read more...
Fringe Judaism
06/07/2018 12:13:10 PM
Fringe Judaism
Rabbi Noah Farkas
At the end of this week's Torah portion, Shlach, we find one of the most famous paragraphs of liturgy:
“God spoke to Moses, telling him to speak to the Israelites and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments for all generations. Let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner. That...Read more...
Holiness of Person, Time and Place
05/10/2018 01:09:20 PM
Holiness of Person, Time and Place
Rabbi Noah Farkas
As we close out the book of Leviticus, the third book of the Torah, we can take a moment to reflect on its central theme - holiness. No other book in the Torah focuses as much on the idea of becoming holy as this priestley book. The reason d'etre of being an Israelite is found in the pasuk, “You shall be holy...Read more...
Invocation at the National Day of Prayer: May 3, 2018
05/03/2018 05:50:13 PM
Invocation at the National Day of Prayer
May 3, 2018
Rabbi Noah Farkas
Today is Lag B'Omer the thirty-third day of the great ingathering of the barley harvest. Today we stand between Exodus and Sinai we mark our pathway between the splitting of sea and the holy mountain. We celebrate by lighting bonfires, but I asked the mayor if I could light one here in this tent. He...Read more...
Invocation at the National Day of Prayer, May 3, 2018
05/03/2018 04:14:20 PM
May 3, 2018
Today is Lag B'Omer the thirty-third day of the great ingathering of the barley harvest. Today we stand between Exodus and Sinai we mark...Read more...
Guatemala
02/08/2018 05:34:25 PM
“What is that?” I asked Karen our tour guide, “That person is called a Brocha!” she said. “That's a crazy job!”
Staring out my...Read more...
Vayechi
12/28/2017 12:24:40 PM
What will be our legacy? Every generation asks itself these questions. It's part of aging through life where we look to bridge past and future. Legacy gives us a sense that our life is worthwhile. It gives us the basis to believe that all our struggles and decisions in life, can be framed in a way that can live on after us. It gives us a chance at immortality. The book of Genesis ends with a meditation on legacy. We find the...Read more...
Responding to Suffering Toldot 5778
11/16/2017 12:33:07 PM
When I go to a house of mourning and sit with the bereaved I often think to myself, “What is the right thing to say?”How can I take their pain away?” I'm sure many of us ask ourselves these same questions. Often, however, when we try to explain our way out of suffering we cause more pain even if we never intend to do so. In fact, many of the theological reasons that...Read more...
Thu, November 21 2024
20 Cheshvan 5785
