blogs/rabbi-noah-farkas

Homelessness: May 2015

Apathy: definition: noun: absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement.

I write this with a broken heart.  I serve many roles in the community including that of a county appointed commissioner to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Today I write not as a commissioner �" I do not speak for the commission- but for myself, a rabbi who sees...Read more...

There's a town called Atri in India.  It's a remote village that, back in 1959 was about 40 miles from the closest hospital.  These 40 miles circumnavigate the Gehlour mountain hills which block any direct access from one  village to the next.  Once, a woman named Falguni suffered a grave injury in the village and her young husband, Dashrath took her in his wagon along the treacherous path seeking help.  Due...Read more...

What is a garden? Not many of us have thought of that question in some depth. Gardens are, for the most part, little plots of land where we can dig in the soil and plant some flowers or maybe a tomato. It's a good place to spend a spring evening or summer morning. Gardens are much more than that. In the Torah, God is the first Gardener, making a home for the world in a garden. So here's the big question. If God created the world, why did God...Read more...

Is the world enough; have you ever asked yourself that question? The world as it stands, with all its messy goodness and impropriety, is it enough for us? Many have answered that question with a resigned 'yes.' In light of all the intractable conflicts, violence, and greed, how could we not see the world and say this is enough because it has to be enough.   Henry James, the sociologist and thinker once wrote, "Life is, in fact, a...Read more...

It's been two months since we launched the new art gallery at VBS. The idea behind the space is to turn every inch of our building into an opportunity to teach Torah, beautify our experience, and engage our collective conscience.   Our first exhibit, “Faces of Homelessness” which seeks to bring the stories of the homeless into our halls so that we might learn from them, has had a great impact on the Jewish community of the San...Read more...