SB Left – Thumb Image List
Shemot
December 23, 2018 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: shemot • 0 Comments
This week, we have shifted from the first to the second book in the Five Books of Moses, or our Written Torah. We have left Bereshit, Genesis and are now in the book of Shemot, or Exodus. We have also shifted from the stories of our Avot and Imahot, our patriarchs and matriarchs, – Avraham, Yitzhak […]
Vayechi
December 16, 2018 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk, Uncategorized • 0 Comments
Shalom Aleichem. And he lived, Vayechi, in the land of Egypt, Mitzrayim. The story of Jacob is coming to an end. His years were 147, and “the time approached for Israel to die…” Rashi, our beloved French medieval commentator, notes an unusual pattern in the Sefer Torah. Usually, in the Sefer Torah each new parashah […]
Vayigash
December 9, 2018 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • 0 Comments
Shalom Aleichem, Vayigash takes its name from the “approach” of Judah to Joseph– as he pleads with the Egyptian governor for mercy. To approach someone when there is such a power differential is an approach that demands careful consideration. Too hasty, too obsequious, too brash, too cautious – any of these may cause the person […]
Miketz
December 2, 2018 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • 0 Comments
Shalom Aleichem, Today we are discussing elements of the Jewish uniform of prayer – wearing prayer shawls, phylacteries and head coveringstallitot, tefillin, and kippot – all signifiers, until very recently, and still for many women, of male cohesion and belonging. One of the most beautiful blessings of belonging in Judaism comes from the prophet Hosea. […]
Vayeshev, No Means No
November 25, 2018 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • 0 Comments
In 2002 at the end of our first International Chevra Kadishaconference in Rockland Maryland, I was given a copy of a tome I had, dare I say, long coveted. One of my fellow organizers gave me Joshua Jacobson’s book: Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Complete Guide to the Art of Cantillation, all 965 pages. I cracked it […]
Vayishlach
November 18, 2018 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: vayishlach • 0 Comments
Shabbat shalom, everyone! This week our parahsah is Vayishlach. Ya’akov is returning to the Land after twenty years in Haran, where he has acquired wives, children, sheep, goats and considerable wealth. Before crossing the river Yabbok, night falls, and again, in a famous sequence, Yaakov has a dream/vision/encounter with – whom? A man? An angel? […]
Rosh Chodesh, Vayetze
November 11, 2018 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: vayetze • 0 Comments
Shalom Aleichem. There was a chassid who used to travel a great distance to be with his Rebbe, chassidic master Rabbi Aaron of Karlin. Once, while making his journey, he was asked why he couldn’t find a Rebbe who lived closer to his own town. “Going to the Karliner gives me special powers,” the chassid […]
Toldot: Deception – or love?
November 4, 2018 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: toldot • 0 Comments
In the early twentieth century a man was brought to Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook. This father had given his son a good Jewish education, he tried to set a good example, and he kept the mitzvot. Now, however, his son had drifted away from Judaism; he no longer kept mitzvot, he did not even identify […]
Chaye Sarah
October 28, 2018 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: chaye sara • 0 Comments
The life of Sarah begins with her death. And from death, new life begins. Eliezer – Abraham’s servant – was sent to find a wife for a now ageing Yitz. Yitz is alone. He is alone like the silence around him. He is bereft of a father he can trust, and with her death, he […]
Vaeira: Jewish Take-out
January 2, 2019 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk • Tags: vaeira • 0 Comments
Vaeira is another one of those sections of Torah that sounds familiar to us – mostly because of our annual re-telling of this story. It all sounds very familiar: our ancestor’s servitude in Egypt, the recounting of the 10 plagues, Pharaoh’s hardened heart. One almost wants to break out into a raucous Dai Dai-einu and […]