Summing Up the Torah of Our B’nei Mitzvah
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Each of the past two weeks we held meaningful, dynamic Bar Mitzvah services, first, two weeks ago on May 29, led by Jared Eizen, and then, last week on June 4, led by Ezra Goldenberg. Jared’s parashah was called Beha’alotekha, from the Book of Devarim (Numbers). Beha’alotkha literally means, “in your raising up,” referring to the […]
Note About Israel and Sunday’s Town Hall
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar What a tragic and disconcerting week it’s been in Israel, a place so deeply held in so many of our hearts. Not only are bombs and rockets flying back and forth, an all-too-familiar experience for residents of Israel and Gaza, but neighborhoods are being torn asunder—mob violence in Israel among Jews and […]
A Powerful Teaching on the Earth from Our Bat Mitzvah
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This past Shabbat we celebrated the Bat Mitzvah of Stella Wolson. Stella’s parashah (portion) was a double portion called Behar-Behukotai, the culminating portion of the third book of Torah, the Book of Vaykira, or, Leviticus. Stella’s parashah begins with, from our contemporary perspective, a radical set of land use laws. Now, lest you […]
The Sacredness of Communal Cohesion
This past Shabbat, our weekly Torah reading landed us in the penultimate parashah (portion) of the book of Vayikra (Leviticus) where we encounter a priestly articulation of the rhythms of the Jewish year: each biblical Jewish holiday—from Passover, to Shavuot, to the High Holidays and Sukkot—is spelled out, along with its associated rituals and tabernacle offerings—from the shofar on […]
A Teaching on Loving Thy Neighbor as Thyself from Our Bat Mitzvah
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This past Shabbat, in the first Shabbat service held in our sanctuary in over a year, we celebrated the Bat Mitzvah ceremony of Sam G. It was the first of seven B’nei Mitzvah ceremonies we are celebrating at SHS over the course of the ten weeks. (Recall that last year we […]