Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

Four score years ago in April 1943, the Jews of Warsaw rose in armed resistance to their German occupiers.   In the free world, Jews were celebrating Passover, the historic journey from slavery in Egypt and the journey through the dessert to the Promised Land millennia ago.  In ghettos of occupied Poland – even in the death camps – Jews were eating the bread of affliction for years yet even they could dream of freedom, “Now we are slaves, next year”.… Will there be a next year, they wondered? Will there be a next day?  Read more...

When I was a kid growing up, we would spend the first night of Passover Seder with one set of grandparents, and the second night with the other. I remember my grandfather, z”l, once greeting me with ‘Chag Sameach!’ Followed by a remark that on the holiday of Passover, I should always wear green. Read more...

International Women’s Day is a global celebration to lift up women’s achievements, whether political, economic, social or cultural.  It is intended to belong to "all groups collectively, everywhere". This idea of "everywhere" isn’t new for us; or it shouldn’t be. Read more...

Have you ever been sitting in a synagogue service, singing along mindlessly, only to suddenly trip over a word in translation and think, “wait, what exactly did I just say?”  The words of the Purim piyyut “Shoshanat Yaakov,” are traditionally sung immediately following the reading of the megillah.  Read more...

What is it that we celebrate, when we celebrate Presidents Day? As a kid, I was taught that George Washington was some sort of moral paragon. When he chopped down the cherry tree, he refused to lie about it. After he had served his term as President, he went home to his farm. He had no desire to be a president for life, and this solidified the country on the path of democracy. There would be no lifetime rulers in the United States, as opposed to in Europe where kings and queens reigned.   Read more...