Sustaining Eternal Flames

Last updated on: April 3, 2023 at 9:38 am By Hebrew College

By Rabbi Frankie Sandmel RS ‘22 Parashat Tzav (Leviticus 6:1-8:36) A favorite song—or, songs, actually—in the Jewish activist circles I often run in is a mashup which takes a verse from this week’s parashah, transformed into a chant by the illustrious Shefa Gold, and combines it with a classic protest song. The result is a powerful agitation, as organizers use that word, meaning: something to inspire a sense of self-interest and personal investment in the issue at hand. The verse, Leviticus 6:6:... Read more

Repairing the Damage

Last updated on: March 21, 2023 at 4:19 pm By Hebrew College

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By Rabbi Leora Abelson Parashat Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1-5:26) Grace Lee Boggs, a legendary Detroit community organizer and elder of movements for racial and economic justice, taught that spiritual practice is to the individual what community organizing is to the collective. I understand this to mean that the inner work we do as individuals is intricately bound to the collective growth and transformation we have to do as humans. As individuals, spiritual practice includes learning to live in right relationship with... Read more

The Role of the Wise Heart

Last updated on: March 21, 2023 at 4:15 pm By Hebrew College

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By Emmanuel Cantor Parashat Vayak’hel-Pekudei (Exodus 35:1-40:38) I vividly remember being in my third-grade Jewish day school class and learning about the Omer, the ritual counting of the days between Passover and Shavuot. Perhaps I had a contrarian impulse that day, as the first thing that I remember is rolling my eyes. I assumed that counting days would be a little boring. Then my teacher taught the class a song to sing before we counted, a tune set to the Torah verses... Read more

Where Was Miriam?

Last updated on: March 6, 2023 at 10:53 am By Hebrew College

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By Leah Carnow Parashat Ki Tissa (Exodus 30:11-34:35) It was asked of the episode of the golden calf: Where was Miriam? A new version of the story emerged (a midrash)— When Moses was long in coming down from the mountain—too long—the people came to Aaron, feeling abandoned by Moses and by God. As Aaron instructed the people, Miriam watched from afar as it says, “his sister stationed herself at a distance” (Exodus 2:4). Miriam remembered how she once prophesied that... Read more

Israel’s Ancient Ouija Board

Last updated on: March 1, 2023 at 10:59 am By Hebrew College

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By Rabbi Neal Gold Parashat Tetzaveh 5783 (Exodus 27:20-30:10) One of the great religious questions in every generation is: How can we ever be sure of what God really desires of us? Many driven people—rabbis, politicians, activists—speak of being “called” by God for a task or a role—but always there is doubt: Is it really a divine calling? Or are these things manifestations of the ego? This is an ancient dilemma as well—and yet the Torah offers one surprising shortcut to knowing God’s will.... Read more

Van Halen, Brown M&Ms, & Parashat Terumah

Last updated on: February 27, 2023 at 11:25 am By Hebrew College

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Parashat Terumah (Exodus 25:1-27:19) Have you heard the mashal (parable) about Van Halen and the brown M&M’s? For those who haven’t: In 1982, Van Halen World Tour included a 53-page typewritten rider to their touring contract. In addition to stipulating that promoters provide the group with “herring in sour cream,” (not the subject of this post, but definitely worth thinking more about), and four cases of “Schlitz Malt Liquor beer (16 ounce cans),” the rider’s “Munchies” section famously included this caveat: “M&M’s (WARNING:... Read more

Moses and Joshua Halfway up the Mountain

Last updated on: February 13, 2023 at 1:16 pm By Hebrew College

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By Rafi Ellenson Parashat Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18) It was as a teenager in a dingy hotel conference room in Queens that I first learned the text, “Joshua ben Perachiah would say, ‘Make for yourself a teacher, acquire for yourself a friend, and judge everyone favorably’” (Pirkei Avot 1:6). Around me were twenty-five other fresh-faced seventeen-year-olds, four wise faculty, two caring counselors, and two brilliant directors. Sharing interpretations, opinions, and personal narratives, we began to unpack this text and became each other’s teachers. The words... Read more

Image as Portal to God

Last updated on: February 7, 2023 at 1:44 pm By Hebrew College

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By Rabbi Adina Allen Parashat Yitro (Exodus 18:1-20:23) This week, in Parashat Yitro, at the foot of a shaking, quaking, smoking Mount Sinai, the Israelites receive the word of God and are given the Ten Commandments—the foundational ethical and religious code for how to live as a people in service to God. The first two commandments are set up to enforce monotheism as the religious system, declaring that God is the only god. Then, before the prohibition against coveting or adultery or... Read more

Leading with Love

Last updated on: February 1, 2023 at 10:37 pm By Hebrew College

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By Heather Renetzky Parashat Beshalach (Exodus 13:17-17:16) When I first learned the meaning of the words to the popular children’s song “Ring Around the Rosie,” I was horrified. I knew it as a fun little song, sung by happy kids skipping in a circle. Then, I read that the words—“Ring-around-the-rosie/A pocket-full of posies/Ashes, ashes/We all fall down”—are about the bubonic plague. The happy tune belied its deeper and darker meaning. Shirat HaYam, the Song of the Sea, is similarly complex. In... Read more

Other People’s Old People, and Other People’s Kids

Last updated on: January 23, 2023 at 11:46 am By Hebrew College

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By Rav Hazzan Ken Richmond Parashat Bo (Exodus 10:1-13:16) Years ago, I brought a teen klezmer band on tour to Eastern Europe. Our eighteen-person entourage included a dozen musicians, several parent chaperones, a grandmother returning to her hometown for the first time since the war, and a small film crew. We divided into pairs for rooming, with the occasional need to switch to three per room. On the evening when we were first preparing to switch to our groups-of-three formation, one of the... Read more

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