Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, our weekly reflection as we make our way toward Shabbat. This Shabbat Awakening summons you to action. While the story we read in Torah this week takes us deep into Egypt, our current focus uplifts us toward the land of Israel.  After all, the name of the Biblical book is called […]

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, our weekly reflection as we make our way toward Shabbat. If you’d prefer to listen as a podcast, it’s available HERE. Pharaoh is no mensch. It turns out that mensch does not mean man. It means human being. I’m grateful to our member, Michael Malamat, who graciously wrote me after I […]

  Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, our weekly reflection as we make our way toward Shabbat. It is available as a podcast HERE. The name of the final portion of Genesis is called “Vayechi: Jacob Lived”, but it speaks about the preparation for his death. As we know, Joseph has brought his whole family down to […]

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, our weekly reflection as we make our way toward Shabbat. It is available as a podcast HERE. Happy New Year! It always strikes me as curious that for the secular new year we use the word “happy” as our hope for the future while at Rosh Hashana, our spiritual new year, […]