For this quarterly message I have chosen to draw from a traditional text of this season, Pirke Avot. Ben Zoma taught: Who is strong? Those who overpower their inclinations. My inclination these past months was to curl up with a…

Many of you reading this quarterly rabbinic missive celebrated Passover last month, the most widely observed holiday on the Jewish calendar. Regardless of how abridged your seder was, I suspect you recited the familiar passage “Why is this night different?”…

Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Yose ben Zimra, “Greater powers of understanding were given to women than to men (Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 18:1).” This quarterly installment of my rabbinic musings is dedicated to women in general, and…

What do you get when you combine jet lag induced by a shift of 14 time zones, sleep deprivation from weeks of High Holiday preparation, and immersion in a foreign culture with a totally unfamiliar language? In the middle of…

Dear Friends, I’ve avoided any political statements in these quarterly rabbinic messages over the past four years. The current situation in Israel is obviously complex, and I respect differences of opinion on this subject. Nonetheless, if you haven’t yet made…

Dear Friends: In Psalm 90, we ask Adonai to teach us how to make each of our days matter. I write these quarterly messages documenting my rabbi-ing in part to challenge myself to make each day matter. Life indeed is…

The ancient midrashic work, Vayikrah Rabbah (IV:6), contains the following anecdote. Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, a Palestinian rabbi of the second century of the Common Era, taught: “[There once was] the case of men on a ship, one of whom…

This rabbinic quarterly update looks back to August, September and October which were rewarding and enjoyable, contrary to a teaching in the Babylonian Talmud Tractate Yoma 29a that “the end of the summer is worse than the beginning of summer.”…

The best I can do at encapsulating the Jewish concept of repentance is “I’m sorry and feel badly for what I did wrong, and I’m trying hard not to do it again.” As I compose this quarterly rabbinic message, we…

Counting is a fundamental human activity – many of us count the number of e-mails in our in-boxes (this message describing my recent rabbi-ing activities is planned as one of only four per year), and starting on the second night…