What do you feel when listening to the Shofar on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur? It is very difficult to describe the experience of hearing the shofar. There are many regulations and associations that come with the shofar, of course, and some of these may come to mind while we listen to the “voices of shofar.” We…
Category: 2 Exodus שמות
Now What? Finding Our Way in the Wilderness: Bishalah
From the air, Eretz Mitzrayim, “the narrow land” of Egypt, reveals itself as a vast expanse of sand and stone broken only by the twisting dark line of the Nile. I saw this first hand as a student in 1985, but you can look as well through satellite photos. On either side of the great river, a…
Might Undermined by Right: Bo
Examine Egyptian iconography and you can’t miss the frightening creatures that populated their imagination. There are snakes and alligators, jackals and hippopotamuses which, though cute in contemporary consciousness, were terrifying to the ancient people who lived along the Nile. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibit, Ancient Egypt Transformed, I learned about the integration of animal images into…
Withdraw Your Hands and Take Hold of Pesah: Shabbat HaGadol 5775
Shabbat HaGadol represents the internal emancipation that was the necessary precondition for the Exodus. Technically, the Israelites were still slaves on the tenth of the month, but when Moses called the elders of Israel and told them to pick out animals for the sacrifice, this was the moment when the people shifted their obedience from…
The Architecture of Holiness: Terumah 5775
There are few structures in America to match the splendor of the United States Supreme Court building in Washington. Built during the Great Depression at the urging of former President and then Chief Justice William Howard Taft for less than $10 million dollars, it is a Neo-classical temple of justice. Architect Cass Gilbert studied the…
Bribery in the Torah and in NYS: Mishpatim 5775
With fifty-three mitzvot, 24 positive and 29 negative, Parashat Mishpatim is aptly named. Doubly so, in fact, since the word “mishpatim” can mean both “rules,” and “sentences,” and most of the rules are issued in brief units of a sentence or two. A striking feature of these rules is their apodictic nature. That is, they are for the most…
It Takes Two Takes: Yitro 5775
אַחַת דִּבֶּר אֱלֹהִים שְׁתַּיִם־זוּ שָׁמָעְתִּי Psalm 62 is a paean to divine power, culminating with the tantalizingly opaque statement, “One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that strength is but God’s, and Yours, Master, is kindness, for You require a man by his deeds” (trans. Robert Alter). What does it mean that…
Exodus, Movement of the People: Bo 5775
It is no coincidence that the first mitzvot addressed to Israel come in Shmot, Chapter 12, the same chapter in which the exodus officially begins. Verse 28 says that Israel, “walked and performed as the Lord had commanded to Moses and Aaron; so they did.” Early Midrashim note the doubling of verbs and say that the…
Reknitting a Frayed Social Fabric: Shemot 5775
[Delivered at Minyan Maat, January 10, 2015 This is a difficult Shabbat. In addition to the painful individual losses in our community, we are in shock and mourning over the dreadful attacks in Paris this week, first at the offices of Charlie Hebdo and then at the Hyper Casher supermarket. There is a sense of the…
The Perfect Perfume: Ki Tisa 5774
One Shabbat in Jerusalem, about 22 years ago, my wife and I were walking down Kovshei Katamon to our minyan. We fell in step with an older Yemenite woman who was holding a fragrant bouquet of basil flowers to enjoy in synagogue. She was already heading home (Temanin pray at 6 AM, even on Shabbat), and spontaneously gave…
The Color of Heaven: Titzaveh 5774
What’s your favorite color? That’s a question we love to ask of children, because it’s easy to have an opinion, and there is no wrong reply. Purple? Great answer! We also pose the question in new games—getting to know a stranger by asking something whimsical about them. Oddly, this simple question would often stump me….
A Mishkan on Your Head: Terumah 5774
I had an epiphany the other day at Shaharit as I sat quietly in my tallit and tefillin during the reader’s repetition. Looking at the enormous menorot in our WLSS sanctuary, it occurred to me that the two shins on my head-tefillin, one with three branches and one with four, were somewhat like a 7-branched menorah flanking…
Rabbi Danny Nevins 