Mifrasim מפרשים : Navigating our Lives as Role Models, Educators, Parents and Jews

Yosef through the Eyes of HaRav Yosef-Timeless Recipes for National and Personal Greatness This past year, at the advice of a friend, I began learning Chumash through the eyes of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik one of the great legal, philosophical, theological minds of the 20th century.  Each week, my eyes have been enlightened through his teachings on the parsha. Using the powerful narrative of the Yosef saga, his discussions in the past three weeks’ readings are timeless lessons for each of us--both in our individual strivings and in how we work with others to work toward greatness.  Through Yosef’s dreams and Yaakov’s vision, the Rav teaches and how to bring holiness into the “real” world. Yosef’s Two Dreams : R. Soloveitchik writes, “How did the Torah portray Joseph? His first dream involved bundles of wheat: he was an individual with a prosaic practical vision.  There was another dream, however, of stars in the heavens.  Both dreams were found in Joseph’s personality.  He was

Chanukkah: The Holiday of For , the Holiday of That and the Singular Holiday of “Thanks” In his most famous work, the Pachad Yitzhak, Rabbi Yizhcok Hutner (1906-1980), points out that the term, hodaah, usually defined as “thanks” ( הודאה or להודות ) has two separate meanings -- appreciation and acknowledgement. Hodaah is an expression of appreciation of goodness received, as in the morning tefilah of modeh ani.  There we thank God for the blessing received-- restoring life in order to face the new day. R. Hutner calls this hodaah al ha’avar, על העבר --thanking for a kindness that has been done--it is a thanking for. Hodaah is also an acknowledgement.  it is an acknowledgement or admission of the position of the other side.  When I realize the validity of your position, I am modeh to it.  Hodaah is also an understanding one’s place in the world.  It is an internalization of who we are in relation to others, whether it be realizing our place as Jews, as Americans, as parents, as

A Jew’s Poem and a Celebrity’s Plea: Messages on Pittsburgh in a Week of Tragedy Pittsburgh continues to be the central focus of our emotions.  From vigils to articles, to prayers and conversations with people of all ages, we are all, in some sense, Pittsburghers this week.    As last week unfolded, I also decided to connect in one other way -- to connect with the lessons of maybe my greatest teacher from Pittsburgh, the late Mr. Rogers.   For over 31 years, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood taught children and all of us so many important lessons. Below are two Pittsburgh moments:  The first is an incredible poem dedicated to the baby who was to be named on that fateful Shabbat.  Of all that I read this week, for me, this was among the most jarring, heartbreaking and powerful. The second is an inspiration.   My parents used to watch Mr. Rogers with me as a child, and highly recommended the movie, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” to me.  Among the many meaningful moments in the film, w

The Acorns Fall while the Quaker Philosopher and the Chassidic Rebbe Speak Our Sukkah took an unusual pounding this year.  Throughout the chag, there was a constant thunderous noise on our Sukkah.  It was not the sound of rain or thunder or even of schach falling, but the sound of acorns.  For some reason, acorns fell from our high trees in droves this Sukkot. Night and day, they kept falling in numbers never before seen by the Franks.  After some intense scientific Google research on the subject, I found out that this is part of the natural rhythm of autumn.  It is not so unusual.  Some years, there are few acorns that fall. And other years, acorns can “sound like little bombs as they rain down on your house.”  And as I listened to the acorns fall as I sat in my sukkah, I lamented -- lamented the end of summer and the beginning of the long cold winter.  But some quiet moments with the words of a Quaker Philopher and a Chassidic Rebbe from my seat in shul changed my angle of vi

Which Day Defines Your Year? A HaYom Challenge for the Yamim Noraim The theater has it right about the day. Whether it is Emily begging the stage manager to return to Grover’s Corners for one more day in Our Town , Billy getting one more day to visit his daughter Louise in Carousel or Mark in Rent talking about “single frames of one magic night forever flicker(ing) in close-up,” it is often one or two moments, one or two days in a year, a Yom, that teach us most about ourselves and what matters. At Elli Kranzler’s annual slichot concert last night into this morning, the sole thread (and the soul thread) that weaved through his music and tefila was the day of his mother’s death this summer.  While every year’s concert is incredible, it was this one that stood out—as his words, his voice and his music, his lens on the slichot was shaped by one day where he lost his mother, his teacher and his nurturer.  As one who was blessed to be there last night, I would say that it was his

Discomfort and Responsibility in the Houses We Live In:  A Blessing for Elul and the Opening of School  As we wind down the summer, many feel that at a certain point, we have had enough.  Enough of the travel, enough of being out and a feeling that it is time to go home.   In Elul, as we prepare for the chagim, we long for a spiritual return home as we recite Tehilim 27. (27:4)   אַחַת, שָׁאַלְתִּי מֵאֵת-יְהוָה--    אוֹתָהּ אֲבַקֵּשׁ שִׁבְתִּי בְּבֵית-יְהוָה,    כָּל-יְמֵי חַיַּי One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after:  that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life. As we enter into another house, the schoolhouse in the coming days, we do so with the hope that it will be a space for us for dwell in and achieve continued growth and learning.   As we enter this house in the month of Elul, I wanted to share three brief lessons from this month.  Elul is not the month of history, it’s the month of responsibility In this book ab

My 2018 Summer 12 Movie “Challenge” and 12 Short Lessons Learned One of the most important lessons in life is to embrace the stage that you are in.  A few years ago, when my children were still very young, I looked at my friends who had older kids jealousy.  They would talk about inspirational beach books or meaningful summer movies and I would only have read Dr. Seuss and watched Disney with my young ones.  I used to ask myself, “Will I ever have time to read a book or watch a movie for pleasure?” Now, this summer, I am embracing my stage and accepting what my friend calls the “Summer 12 Challenge.” Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, over that 14-15 week span, I have spent time on planes, in theaters and on Netflix with friends, family or on my own watching movies once a week or so. Here are the 12 from this Summer and a 1-2 sentence thought on each one.  They are in no particular order… Maktub-A fun movie that has everything-mafia, Israeli flavor, drama, humor, theology and

Chanukkah kept coming to my mind.  Even when the rabbi said that, “Tisha B’Av is a a fast day like Yom Kippur and a day of restrictions like shiva,” images of menorahs in the window were in my head. Yes, in the midst of the most depressing holiday on the Jewish calendar, the concepts of Tisha B’Av’s timing and focus on space hearken me back to Chanukkah. Time In the middle of the winter, darkness pervades our lives.  Days are short and it is not unusual to experience some level of Seasonal Affective Disorder, where moodiness and depression emerge due to the sparse commodity of sunlight. LIke in many other religions, we, as Jews, celebrate a holiday to addresses those doldrums-- Chanukkah. Among the many lessons that Chanukkah, the Festival of Lights, teaches us is that even a little bit of light can chase away the darkness.  In the time of year where we can lose hope, comes Chanukkah to teach us that the spirit of positivity, of hope and of light is always present even when it se

To Follow the Ari’s Advice--In Conscience and in Direction R. Isaac Luria, otherwise known as the Ari z’l, used to say that, even before tefila or ritual, every day should be started by accepting upon oneself the mitzvah of  ואהבת לרעך כמוך -- the mitzvah of loving your neighbor as yourself. As parents and as educators, we should remind our children -that all of our learning and actions should lead us to that goal of empathy. But how do we get there? What brings us to the realization of this mitzvah? Sometimes that means to follow the heart and feelings.  Sometimes it means to follow the head and thoughts.  But it always means to follow our moral muscle, to follow our conscience. Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he or she must take it because conscience tells her or him that it is right.” The central path toward the goal of empathy is to follow the conscience --- it will f

Makor MiMakor מקור ממקור  A New Lens on My Blog Shvuot: To Swear on Seven: A Shavuot Conversation with the Bronx Senior Center This blog model is called “Makor MiMakor”--the source from the source.  Every month or so, I will share a piece of Torah or a quote or article (the Makor)  that I learned with a member of the Kinneret community-- either a group of students, teachers, parents or senior citizens from our school’s intergenerational learning program (A Makor). I will then share their thoughts and reactions and conclude with a brief takeaway from that conversation.  This blog’s subject is about the mitzvah of tochekah—of giving criticism. The Makor: R. Shimshon Refael Hirsch on Gen. 21:23- 'R. Hirsch points out that the word  הִשָּׁבְעָה “seems to be formed from הִשָּׁבְעָ meaning seven and in its reflexive form, would mean literally “to give oneself up to the seven.”  As the world was created in 6 days and on Shabbat, God rested, the number seven refers to God and

A New Lens on the Blog : Makor MiMakor מקור ממקור   Tochekah: To Criticize or Be Criticized:  An 8th Grade Conversation in Room 108 I remember once sitting in a silent classroom, with nothing but  the Tanakah sitting at the front teacher’s desk.  “The Tanakh,” the Professor said half jokingly and half seriously, “says nothing.” This exercise was to teach us that our sources and our Torah speaks to us, only when we engage with them.  It is in that spirit that I try a new blog model called “Makor MiMakor”--the source from the source.  Every month or so, I will share a piece of Torah or a quote or article (The Makor)  that I learned with a member of the Kinneret community-- either a group of students, teachers, parents or senior citizens from our school’s inter-generational learning program (A Makor). I will then share their thoughts and reactions and conclude with a brief takeaway from that conversation.  This blog’s subject is about the mitzvah of tochekah—of giving critic

Whipped Cream, Card Games, and Important Lessons from Life and the Aftermath  from our Holy 6th Grade “If you could have witnessed one miracle from the Pesach Story, what would it have been?” That was this week’s Question of the Week at the famed Cafe Frank. Yes, this year I have the wonderful opportunity to run a small cafe every Friday out of my office. Our amazing Hebrew teacher, Hanita, sends four students to my office for cookies, hot cocoa, and whipped cream for a discussion all in Hebrew about life. Expecting to hear answers such as the Ten Plagues, Moses’s stick changing into a snake, or other amazing Passover miracles, two of the answers made me think most as they helped me to frame a central idea of life. The first student said  that she would have liked to have witnessed “Kryiat Yam Suf”--the great splitting of the sea. This was the moment of such miraculous nature, where, according to the midrash, even “a handmaid saw what [the prophet] Ezekiel, did not see.” – (

Florida Teens, Shushanites and Two-Way Wordlessness: Two Mini Blogs for Purim First Blog: Florida Teens and Shushanites: The Power of the Moment is Sometimes Felt by the Most Unlikely While we were cooking for Shabbat last week, my wife said, “Maybe Emma Gonzalez is the next Rosa Parks.”  And while I sort of laughed that off, maybe I shouldn’t have. In a world where fighting and bickering among politicians has led to an increasingly frustrating lack of progress, Emma Gonzalez, the survivor of the tragic shooting in Florida, has stood up and said “enough.” Calling out adults and telling them that they are behaving “like children,” this  teenager has been the one that has moved people from both sides of the aisle to realize that we have to make change. She has become representative of the movers of this moment, the youth that has to identified this moment and seized it. Something similar happened in Shushan.  In his thoughts about Purim, R. Zevin quotes Tehilim 98:3 which states

The Great Big Sort: The Wonderful Blessing and Terrifying Danger of the Time in Which We Live They gave out lettuce. Yes, one time, someone I know, got lettuce from a neighbor as a trick or treat food.  Not owing to make lots of friends and not the most neighborly thing to do. There is a Chinese proverb that says that “A good neighbor is like a priceless treasure.”  Well, lettuce on Halloween, may not be so priceless, but we all know how priceless a good neighbor can be.  From the big moments in life, to the day-to-day routine, supportive people who share your life and neighborhood make a big difference. And Rebbi Yose feels the same.   In Pirkei Avot 2:9 he tells us that the good path of life is being a  שכן טוב --a good neighbor.  R. Lau, in his commentary, tells us that this means that we should choose where we live  with great care, making sure we are surrounding ourselves with a proper environment. He shares the famous quote: “You can give me gold and silver, but I would