A Different Kind Of Hanukkah
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar You all think you know the story of Hanukkah, don’t you? You think it’s about that little vial of oil that was only supposed to be enough to keep the temple menorah lit for one night and yet lasted for eight. Or perhaps you say, not so fast that’s the myth […]
Three Really Hard Incidents in Philadelphia This Week
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, The reverberations and fallout from the October 7 massacre persist. Of course within Israel—victims and hostages and their families, soldiers and their families, and really every citizen of Israel experiencing their world turned upside down; for residents of the West Bank and Gaza, increased violence all around them, the […]
Pain, Heartbreak, and the Voices of our Parents
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This week’s parashah is action packed. It begins with our ancestor Jacob preparing to meet his twin brother Esau for the first time since Jacob deceived their father Isaac and stole the sacred blessing from him; it also includes that seminal moment in Israelite history when Jacob wrestled with […]
Reflections on the Israel March in DC
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, I joined over 290,000 people at the National Mall in Washington DC on Tuesday for the March for Israel, March to Free Hostages, and March Against Antisemitism. While I did not agree with everyone that was selected to be a speaker at the event, it felt deeply important to […]
The Role of Siblings
I have the privilege now of offering some words of Torah, reflecting on the same parashah, the same Torah portion Alexander and Jenavive will speak about tomorrow, as they share with you all — their family, their community — the results of their process of Yisrael, wrestling with God, as that word Yisrael means; wrestling with […]