Rabbi's Sermons

Shabat Shalom!

This week's Parashat "Ki Tisa" portion includes two of the greatest and most difficult events from Mount Sinai Matan Torah, to the generation that wandered in the desert. Those events were "The Golden Calf" and the consequent "Breaking of the first tables of the law". Interestingly, there is a relationship between those dramatic events that are found near the end of the Parasha, and at...Read more...

Shabat Shalom!

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey…”; And I would add: “neither his car, nor his 75” TV set, nor his most recent gadget, nor his last trip to Paris, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s". This is the last in the ten commandments inscribed on the tables of...Read more...

Shabbat shalom!

The world was created by speech. The first time God used speech, was in the book of Genesis: "And God said: Let there be light". The declaration is the process by which creation took place. The Psalm 33 mentions it: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth". Curiously, when God created man – the crown of his creation, created...Read more...

Shabbat shalom!

Parashat Shemot, which opens the book of Exodus this week, is an extraordinary reading, in the sense that all the main actors are, in fact, actresses. The Parasha tells of no less than six women, who passed little Moshe along, from hand to hand, until he was saved, grew up, became the great Moshe who saved Israel from slavery in Egypt. How would Moshe have had survived, without the...Read more...

Shabbat shalom!

Most of the Shabbat sermons focus on the reading of the Torah, but when I read this week’s Haftara Vayigash, I could not ignore the beauty that exists in the message of the prophet Ezekiel to the people of Israel. The prophet Ezekiel was one of those who went into exile in Babylon, he was a spiritual leader of the people of Israel and a prophet who kept the soul of the people alive in...Read more...

Shabbat shalom!

In Genesis 34 we read: "1 And Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she bore unto Yaacov, went out to see the daughters of the land". Thus begins the tragedy of this week's portion, Parashat Vayishlach. From this verse a genocide was born. From this declaration the identity of a tribe in Israel, the tribe of Dinah, was erased, from this opening a national-ethnic rivalry began, seemingly...Read more...

 Shabbat shalom!

Right in the middle of this week's Parsha, Chayei Sara, "The Life of Sarah", that it actually refers to both, the story of Sarah's and Abraham's death, the Torah is starting an unusual saga, the story of the journey of Avraham's servant, who goes on a trip to search for a wife for Yitzchak, Abraham’s son, followed by the expected marriage of Rivka and Yitzchak.

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Shabat Shalom and Chag Sameach!

Imagine for a few moments being able to travel in a time machine, and return to the year 660 bce right in the days of Sukkot, and travel across the planet to land in what is now Northern Israel. Imagine also, that you have arrived at a village in the Galilee, and that you observe from afar a family of farmers, with children, cattle, camels, all of them traveling on their...Read more...

Shabbat shalom!

In this week's Torah reading, Parashat Haazinu, we read the story of Moses on Mount Nebo. A week ago, during the Torah reading on the first day of Rosh Hashana, we read the story of Hagar in the desert. They are, apparently, two unrelated stories; however, the two have something in common. In both, the Hebrew word – MINEGUED, meaning – "in front", is very significant.

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Shabbat shalom!

Tonight begins Shavat Shuva. We are experiencing the period of Aseret Yemei Hateshuva – 10 days of repentance, from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur. We are in the last phase prior to Yom Kippur, just a few days before the last day of forgiveness. These are the last moments of preparing our souls, something that we also recite during our prayers: "השיבנו ה 'אליך ונשובה,...Read more...

Shabbat shalom!

This week’s portions of the Torah is Nitzavim and we almost conclude the Torah reading for the Jewish year of 5785. Moses described in the previous week’s reading, what was good and bad, and what would come upon the people of Israel, according to its actions and deeds. Now, close to the end of Parashat Nitzavim, in chapter 29, it is written: “אֵלֶּה דִבְרֵי...Read more...

Shabbat shalom!

From the six hundred and thirteen commandments of the Torah, this week's, “Ki Tetze” Torah portion accounts for over 12% of them, a total of seventy-four commandments. Most of them coincide with the modern vision of morals and ethics, others less... the vast majority sounds inspiring and beautiful to us, the rest... not as much. Almost every one of these seventy-four commandments are...Read more...

Shabat Shalom!

This Shabbat’s Parashat Ekev comes to us in the second week of the Sheva de'Nechemata, the seven weeks of consolation that follow the mourning of Tisha B'Av. These weeks draw from the prophecies of Isaiah, offering hope after destruction, reminding us that even in our darkest hours, redemption is promised. Specifically, this second week echoes the cry of Zion in Isaiah 49: "14 But Zion...Read more...

Shabat Shalom!

Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian writer, Nobel Prize for Literature, in his book "Vivir para contarla", wrote: "Life is not the one you lived, but the one you remember and how you recall it". With this phrase, we are confronted with a fact that is not always convenient for everyone, since what is important for us and for our lives, is not a list of historically verified and exact...Read more...

Shabat Shalom!

This week's portion is called: Parashat Pinchas. It tells the story of Pinchas the Kohen, Aharon’s grandson, who at the end of the previous portion, murdered a couple (Israelite and Midianite), who sinned by provoking assimilation with the daughters of Midian, who, in turn, invited the people of Israel to idolatry. Curiously, for this extreme act of fanaticism, God blessed him, saying:...Read more...