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This week’s Torah reading records that before going out to battle, the Israelite troops would gather together to hear from their leaders. The generals would give the orders, and then a priest would step forward and bless the assembled soldiers. He would say to them: “Hear, O Israel! You are about to join battle with your enemy. Let not your heart falter. Do not be in fear, or in panic, or in dread of them. For it is the Adonai your God who marches with you to do battle for you against your enemy, to bring you victory” (Deuteronomy 20:3-4). Read more...

This week we offer you a special take on the weekly Torah portion. Jacob Artson, Rabbi Artson’s son, turned 13 this week, and he celebrated his becoming a bar mitzvah by leading the Torah services on Rosh Hodesh Elul, where he delivered this D’var Torah on Parashat Shoftim. May he be blessed to teach Torah for many years to come, and may we be open to the many teachers to come our way! Bar Mitzvah Speech by Jacob Artson   Read more...

It was a day hollowed of warmth and full of February’s wrath. The wind hurled mists of ice and powder drifts against the light infantry of hats, coats and doubled scarves. If New England wind had teeth, that day those teeth would have shorn flesh off the bone. Read more...

You Can Be Too Rich.   We are justly proud of the ability of our economy to provide so much comfort and so many fundamentals to our own people and to those around the world.  The power of American enterprise, with its abundance and its energy, is remarkable by any standard.  What used to be affordable only by nobility and the wealthy is now within reach of the average American.  Owning a car is no longer a symbol of opulence, and just about everybody has a television set in their own home.   Read more...

In his magisterial presentation of Judaism, The Guide of the Perplexed, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (known as Maimonides to the Western world) explains that the purpose of the Torah is twofold: the welfare of the soul and the welfare of the body. Rambam points out that the welfare of the soul is more noble and greater, but that it comes only after the welfare of the body. And he defines the welfare of the body both in terms of the individual (maintaining health), but also in terms of the body politic (fashioning a society of justice and compassion). Read more...