The Man of Lonesome Sorrow

Headshot of Rabbi Edward Feinstein
5778
by Rabbi Edward Feinstein
posted on July 21, 2018
Torah Reading
Haftarah Reading
He awoke from the nightmare with a scream, as he did every night for almost forty years. His heart was racing, his body drenched in sweat, the taste of ashes upon his tongue. His mind was reeling with vivid images of fiery destruction. His ears were filled with shrieking and wailing. He saw the streets of Jerusalem running with rivulets of blood, the Holy Temple ground into the earth, the lifeless bodies of the priests scattered about the Temple Mount, their vestments torn and desecrated.    Read more...

Chieftains of Sodom, Folk of Gomorrah

Headshot of Gail Labovitz
5777
by Rabbi Gail Labovitz, PhD
posted on January 23, 2017
Torah Reading
Haftarah Reading
It may be (at least for me writing this in Los Angeles, in the Northern Hemisphere) the middle of summer when the days are at their longest and brightest, but it is a dark time on the Jewish calendar. Parashat Devarim is always read on the Shabbat immediately preceding the 9th of Av (or sometimes on the 9th itself, while the fast is postponed to the 10th, on Sunday), the occasion on which Jews mark the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, and in many communities, other tragedies that have befallen our people over history as well. Read more...

Acquiring Words

Headshot of Rabbi Edward Feinstein
5776
by Rabbi Edward Feinstein
posted on August 7, 2016
Torah Reading
Haftarah Reading
Dear Mr. Feinstein, Let me be the first to welcome you to the wonderful world of AARP. Attached you will find your provisional membership card. Soon, the world of AARP benefits will be yours. So begin my sunset years. Read more...

Welcome to "Heaven" and "Hell"

Photograph of Reb Mimi Feigelson
5775
by Reb Mimi Feigelson
posted on July 19, 2015
Torah Reading
Haftarah Reading
American Ecological-Anthropologist Roy Rappaport (1926-1997) taught me today that "The linguistic capacity that is central to human adaptation makes it possible to give birth to concepts that come to possess those who have conceived them, concepts like… heaven and hell." This understanding made me smile and gave academic language to that which I heard years ago from my teacher, Reb Shlomo Carlebach (1925-1994; hard not to see the close parallels the years they were both granted life). Read more...