What Can the Plague of Darkness Teach Us?
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This week, during Shabbat morning’s Torah discussion, we studied the ten plagues, and in particular the plague of darkness. The conversation centered around how to understand what took place during the plague of darkness and what the Torah is trying to teach us in its description of it. To represent our […]
Rest as a Form of Sacred Offering
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar There is a phrase that comes from the silent amidah, the silent standing prayer at the core of our worship service on Shabbat that has become something of a mantra for me as I seek to navigate Shabbat each week. That phrase is found on page 49 of our Lev Shalem siddur, second […]
The Four Types of Freedom
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar When the Israelites are down, God says to Moses, “Say, therefore, to the Israelite people: I am יהוה. I will free you from the labors of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary chastisements. And I will take you to be My people, and I will be […]
What Does it Mean to Be “Redeemed”?
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I wanted to begin by sharing with you the d’var torah (Torah-based teaching) I offered this past Friday night at Shabbat services, something that I do most every Friday night mixed into our musically-infused service, which is always followed by a community dinner and always preceded by wine and cheese. We welcome you […]
The “Uniquely-American Problem”
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar One core element of freedom, by any definition, is the freedom to not be in perpetual fear for one’s safety and the safety of one’s loved ones. The week-in-week-out—often day-in-day-out—episodes off mass gun violence we’ve seen in this country so far this year, capped off by two heartbreaking incidents of mass murder in […]