Rosh HaShanah Worship Services: Haftarah Blessings
The blessing after the reading of haftarah always sanctifies the day on which it is read. Throughout most of the year, that day is Shabbat, but haftarahis also read on the High Holidays. On Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur the text changes from the familiar Shabbat text to refer to the holiday.
Yom Kippur Worship Services: Haftarah Blessings
The blessing after the reading of haftarah always sanctifies the day on which it is read. Throughout most of the year, that day is Shabbat, but haftarah is also read on the High Holidays.
Hanukkah Blessings
Sukkot Blessings
It is a mitzvah to celebrate in the sukkah. While the Torah instructs us to live in the sukkah for seven days, many choose to only eat meals in the sukkah. When eating or reciting kiddush in the sukkah, recite this blessing:
The Gift: A Song of Love
There were about a hundred of us standing around in a room, the same room we had been in since early morning. Only now it was evening. We had spent the day listening and learning about the significance of life.
The Song Is Still Alive
You're driving along the freeway and that song comes on the radio. You travel back-first love, high school dances, vacations, summers at the beach. As soon as the first notes register in your mind, the memories come flooding back.
How the Heart Relates to Moral Judgments
The Bible, with 850 attestations of lev and levav, the Hebrew words for heart, portrays that organ as the center of emotion, intellect, and personality.
Escape from Freedom
What is it that Moses demands of Pharaoh? Ask most people and they will respond,"Let my people go." Indeed, in Cecil B.
Everything Flows from God: Everything Depends on You
This year, I have the pleasure of studying the Book of Exodus together with the lay-led Hebrew Bible study group at Temple Beth Or in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I serve as senior rabbi. Thisd’var Torah draws on comments and realizations from members of the study group.