I just received permission to share Rabbi Chayva Lehrman of Am Tikvah in San Francisco’s message to her congregation. It is about Shavuot, but a question we can ponder throughout life. “Why was the Torah given in the desert?” asks the midrash. One might think that the Torah, the wellspring of Jewish tradition, should have…
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The Torah portion T’rumah is about the building of the Tabernacle in the desert. This could be read at face value as a rather boring set of building instructions. But we are never limited to the simple meaning in Torah. Rabbi Josh Weisman of Temple Beth Sholom in San Leandro sent this beautiful message to…
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(A Torah scroll laid out for repair by a sofer, a Hebrew scribe) One of the things that bothers me a great deal is the believe by many (Jews and non-Jews) that there is a single true Jewish belief on everything from God to food. You can image how happy I was to see this…
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For many people Jesus is God, but is the reverse true? Last week I needed to have a document notarized. I took it into my bank where they have a notary on staff. The young woman looked over my paperwork and told me, “For this document you have to swear an oath. I have one…
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You may have noticed that Jews don’t rush to discuss GOD. There are so many authentic ways to view the concept of God in Judaism. Here’s a class, taught by a rabbi, where you can get some of your questions answered… or at least discussed. During worship services, we affirm our faith in God through…
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(This article originally appeared in my Mixed and Matched column for the J-weekly on Sept. 30, 2020) Dear Dawn: I am a Christian man married to a Jewish woman. We are raising our children Jewish, and I am very comfortable with that decision. However, things are so terrible right now and I feel like praying….
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