On February 25 (16 Adar I) my mother, Shirley Shlachter, “breathed her last…and was gathered to her kin.” The Torah uses such phrases to describe the death of Abraham at the end of Parashat Chayei Sarah, a weekly reading that…

I think I’ve finally solved my book storage problem! Over Thanksgiving I visited daughter Orli who is spending an exchange year abroad in Dublin, Ireland, and my sightseeing included the Trinity College Library Long Room. Nearly 65 meters in length,…

Traditional prayer books often include a listing of blessings for various occasions. With this quarterly message, I’d like to introduce you to some you may wish to use when the opportunity arises. On seeing the wonders of nature – Praised…

For this quarterly message I have chosen to draw from a traditional text of this season, Pirke Avot. Ben Zoma taught: Who is strong? Those who overpower their inclinations. My inclination these past months was to curl up with a…

Many of you reading this quarterly rabbinic missive celebrated Passover last month, the most widely observed holiday on the Jewish calendar. Regardless of how abridged your seder was, I suspect you recited the familiar passage “Why is this night different?”…

Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Yose ben Zimra, “Greater powers of understanding were given to women than to men (Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 18:1).” This quarterly installment of my rabbinic musings is dedicated to women in general, and…

What do you get when you combine jet lag induced by a shift of 14 time zones, sleep deprivation from weeks of High Holiday preparation, and immersion in a foreign culture with a totally unfamiliar language? In the middle of…

Dear Friends, I’ve avoided any political statements in these quarterly rabbinic messages over the past four years. The current situation in Israel is obviously complex, and I respect differences of opinion on this subject. Nonetheless, if you haven’t yet made…

Dear Friends: In Psalm 90, we ask Adonai to teach us how to make each of our days matter. I write these quarterly messages documenting my rabbi-ing in part to challenge myself to make each day matter. Life indeed is…

The ancient midrashic work, Vayikrah Rabbah (IV:6), contains the following anecdote. Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, a Palestinian rabbi of the second century of the Common Era, taught: “[There once was] the case of men on a ship, one of whom…