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Think about a time in your life when you felt excluded or left out of a community or group. Perhaps you excluded yourself, or perhaps others excluded you. Remember your thoughts and your feelings. Did you ask for help? Did you want someone to reach out to you, to stretch out a hand, to bring you back in? Read more...

If there is a night that is rich with peek moments, traditions and memories it is seder night! Imagine leading a communal seder of three hundred people in Dharamsala, India, where throughout the evening people trickle over to you whispering/yelling, "but you didn’t use the tune that we sing at home!" and all I can think then and there is: "But you made a choice to be thousands of miles from your home, living in a shack on the top of a mountain for a reason, didn’t you??? Surely it wasn’t to sing the melodies that you sang at home..." Smiling, I would keep that thought to myself... Read more...

A fable: There was a king who had the most magnificent collection of jewels. This collection was his greatest joy. One night, he dreamed of a ring with special power: When a person was sad, the ring could make him happy; when he was giddy, it sobered him; and when he was joyful, it intensified and heightened his joy. The king awoke convinced that somewhere in the world there was such a ring. He summoned his ministers, described the dream and offered a fabulous reward for the one who found it Read more...

After finishing its discussion of the various types of sacrifices, our parshah turns its attention to the investiture of Aaron and his sons into the Priesthood, in Chapter 8 of Leviticus. Moses brings Aaron forward, and begins to dress him in the uniform of High Priest that we read about a few weeks ago in Parashat Tetzaveh: 7He put the tunic on him, girded him with the sash, clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him, girding him with the decorated band with which he tied it to him. 8He put the breastpiece on him, and put into the breastpiece the Urim and Thummim. Read more...

A number of commentators have observed that there is an apparent logical problem in the opening of this week's parashah. The opening verses of Exodus, Chapter 35, are as follows: א) ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל ויאמר אלהם אלה הדברים אשר צוה ה' לעשת אתם  ב) ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה וביום השביעי יהיה לכם קדש שבת שבתון לה' כל העשה בו מלאכה יומת  ג) לא תבערו אש בכל משבתיכם ביום השבת Read more...