Israel’s Democracy on Pause: A Victory for Popular Protest and Judicial Balance
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, What a week it’s been in Israel. We are in the midst of marking the 75th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, and never before has the country seen popular protests of this magnitude. Just today, over 100,000 people have been protesting outside the compound housing […]
Our Calendar is Our Catechism
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This Shabbat is the final Shabbat of arbah parshiyot, the four special Torah readings that supplement our weekly march through the Torah from beginning to end. These special Torah readings are part of the Jewish liturgical cycle, so that not only do we journey with our ancestors from the creation of the […]
Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Passover is the holiday where, among the opening words of the seder, lifting up the matzah, we chant the Aramaic words as follows, הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִּי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְאַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם. כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל… “This is the bread of destitution that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Anyone […]
The Meaningfulness of Meaningless Rituals
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar We are in the midst of a series of special shabbatot. Yes, all shabbats are special—a chance to feel rested at the end of a week of putting pressure on ourselves—but we have a few special shabbatot over the course of the year, concentrated especially in anticipation of passover, which facilitate a sort of […]
The Golden Calf: From What Are We Distracting Ourselves?
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, This past week at our Shabbat morning Torah discussion, which falls midway through the service for about half an hour each week at approximately 10:30 am, we discussed that it was Shabbat Parah—the special Shabbat in advance of Pesach (Passover), which, in ancient times, reminded Israelites getting ready for their […]