Like many of my later learning experiences of Torah and parsha, I felt that I needed to learn in a group setting, or one on one in order for any meaningful experience to take place. Well, technology changed all that and it is really making Torah learning much more accessible than I originally thought. The virtual world of education is one that is rapidly growing and it is entering the the Jewish world as well. I did not have a bat-mitzvah but my brother did. Back in the eighties, he learned portion by portion until he felt comfortable with the … Continue reading →

Very recently, we called Israel to wish my father a happy birthday – well, my son did him the honors. When the three year old got tired of wishing him a happy birthday, my father asked the next predicted question: “are you staying in Pittsburgh?” With family so far away, it’s hard to make sense of emotional territory that goes along with immigranthood – such as the life I am living now. It is times like these I need a higher spiritual reign or order of things to provide spiritual balance and give perspective. So I turn to the book … Continue reading →

The Torah portions for the past few weeks have dealt with Avraham, who is considered to be the first Jew. Actually, Avraham was not only the first Jew, but the first monotheist. Everyone at that time worshipped Idols, and it was Avraham who discovered, at the age of three and through his own reasoning, that there was one G-d who created the world and who was responsible for everything. In those times, people worshipped the sun and the moon, but three-year-old Avraham looked up at the sky and thought “The sun needs something else, something greater than it, to make … Continue reading →

When I first became religious, some members of my family thought I had joined some kind of cult. Here I was, a free-thinking, Bohemian type who was proud of rejecting the trappings of a conventional lifestyle, including an office job, because I didn’t want to be “fenced in.” After all of this talk of “doing my thing” I had seemed, almost overnight, to consign myself to a lifestyle that involved, among other things, not turning on a light switch on Saturdays, avoiding dairy for six hours after eating meat, wearing clothing to cover my elbows and wrists. What happened to … Continue reading →

In this week’s Torah portion, Vaetchanan, we learn how a voice transformed the whole world. This was not an ordinary voice, but was the voice of G-d as he revealed the Torah to Moses a second time. Moses ascended Mt. Sinai after the sin of the Golden Calf to atone on behalf of the Jewish People. It was during this second revelation that the voice of G-d was heard, a voice which literally made an impression on everything that exists. How does the Torah describe this voice? It was “unceasing.” A commentary on the Torah, the Midrash Rabba, discusses what … Continue reading →

What does the Jewish religion have against idolatry? After all, does it harm anyone else to sit in the privacy of one’s home and prostrate to idols? A person could be a good, decent, upstanding citizen, so why should it matter to whom or to how many gods a person bows to? Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, author of Bringing Heaven Down to Earth (a very inspiring read of “eye bites” that communicate the wisdom of the Torah in short meditations), addressed this question quite eloquently, and I wish I had heard it before becoming religious, since I had the same question. … Continue reading →

People sometimes ask me, “Does Judaism say that only Jews go to Heaven?” While the good “go to Heaven” or have a place in the World to Come, the real goal is to bring Heaven down to Earth, which will happen when the Jewish Messiah comes. However, that is a subject for a different blog. According to Judaism, all people, regardless of origin have a place in the World to Come, provided that they believe in one G-d and follow seven basic rules that are intended for humankind. In fact, Judaism is the only religion I know of that has … Continue reading →

This is my first blog in a long while as I was on extended vacation and had some family issues to deal with. It is certainly good to be back and blogging again, and I hope to see some familiar readers from my previous blogs as well as some new “faces.” The Chumash, or the five Books of Moses in the Hebrew Bible, is divided into weekly portions. This week’s portion is called Acharei Mos, after the death of Aaron’s sons. This is continuing a story that occurred in an earlier portion when Aaron’s sons, who were serving as priests, … Continue reading →

The Torah reading last Shabbat was Yitro, the parsha which describes the pivotal event that defined the Jews as a People; the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. This parsha also describes Moshe (Moses) and his father-in-law, Yitro (Jethro); Yitro gives the Torah portion its name. What was so essential about this meeting between Moshe and his father-in-law that the parsha was named after him and not the most important event, the revelation of the Torah? Yitro was a convert to Judaism, and this was no small feat for him, because he had been a priest of other religions … Continue reading →