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

  Not Spreading the Light, but Striking It: Chanukkah and the Holiday of the Heart “Spread the light,” “light up the darkness,” are the messages we hear so much this time of year when it comes to Chanukkah. From commercials to synagogue programs, sharing the light is the common theme. And understandably so, the primary concept of Chanukkah is the miracle– the miracle of the war and the miracle of the oil. The central mitzvah of this holiday is pirsumei nisa, to share and publicize the miracle. We fulfill this precept by placing our menorah by our windows and showing the world our pride. We are told in the Talmud that we must keep the menorah lit for at least 30 minutes until all of the foot traffic leaves our neighborhoods making sure that every passerby takes in the power of the lights.  But there is another halacha that seems to go against this principle. We are told in the Talmud that if, after lighting our candles, the light mistakenly burns out or blows out, we don’t have to reign

  Chaye Sarah: Virtues, Vision and a Mentor with a Tweed Coat --A Tribute to Paul Bolenbaugh This week’s parsha recalls the death of Sarah, but is strangely called Chaye Sarah, literally translated as “The Life of Sarah.”    While it certainly discusses her death and burial, it is Rashi, among others, who tell us that the unusual choice of titles for this parsha is purposeful, as death helps us understand life. Sarah, our matriarch, lived a life of energy, vigor and moral character. David Brooks, author  and columnist, echoes this age-old concept.  He writes, “..there were two sets of virtues, the résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues…The résumé virtues are the skills you bring to the marketplace. The eulogy virtues are the ones that are talked about at your funeral — whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful. Were you capable of deep love.” While I do not know of Sarah’s resume virtues, the choice of title of the parsha, Chaye Sarah, reminds us of her eulogy virtues–the ones th

Increasing the Spiritual Thirst of Our Students Thank you to the staff at The Jewish Education Experience Podcast for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts and philosophy on education and Jewish relevance.   Click here for Apple platform, here for Google and here for Spotify.    Wishing everyone a Shabbat Shalom and Chag sameach. 

 The Shofar’s Voice in Staples' Odd Back to School Campaign Staples is trying to undo a classic American phrase.  All over the radio and internet, Staples keeps telling us as they peddle folders, pens and notebooks, “Let's Go Forward 2 School. We're not going back to school”.    From our youngest years of life, the end of summer has always been “Back to School”–It’s Back to School sales, Back to School banners and even Back to School Night.   While this campaign rubs me the wrong way, I think Staples actually may be on to something.   The sounds of the shofar gives us a clue on how we should look not just at Back to School, but at all of our fall returns–returning to schedule, returning to the holidays and returning to more of a routine. And yes, each year we go forward and we also must do it by going back.  As we all know, the shofar has a three part structure,  tekiah, shevarim/truah, tekiah. It is through those notes where we can learn about the dynamics of our most sacr

Up Close Snapshots of a Rebbe: Life Lessons from Rav David Weiss Halivni In the early 90’s, following college graduation, I was soul searching–looking for direction in the next chapter of my life,  It was in those years that I was blessed to learn from Rav David Weiss Halivni, both as a regular at the Finkelstein Minyan, later as member of Kehilat Orach Eliezer and also as a rabbinical student at his rabbinical school, the Metivta.   While I did learn about his passion for Talmud and scholarship, for me, the countless life lessons that I learned from this gadol, a man whom I had the privilege to watch with a front row seat, were most powerful.   Rav Halivni as a pluralist- In the 90’s, a major topic in our community was pluralism and squaring the challenge of being a person of faith while being open to the views of others. When I asked Rav Halivni how he navigated that challenge, he answered with enormous humility. I remember him telling me, “I will believe with everything I have that

For Each to Discover חובתו בעולמו  : A Hope for the Class of 2022   To the Dear Class of 2022, While each class is unique, you will always be special as not only a class that I have grown with here at KDS since you were in 3rd grade, but as the first that I had the pleasure of teaching in the classroom on a regular basis.  Through our time together every other day in Judaics this year and in so many other surroundings, I have been so impressed with you all.  You are a group of smart, inquisitive, caring and supportive young people.   While many principals tell their graduates that they have the whole world in front of them, I want to sharpen that blessing with two other ideas about the world for you to take going forward. The first message about the world comes from R. Moshe Chaim Luzatto as told in his  מסילת ישרים.   He tells us that the most important job of each person is to figure out חובתו בעולמו  their responsibility in their own world.   The outside world is out there for you t

 Were they All Really Holy?  Death, the Yoms and our Personal and National Legacy Each year as spring arrives, Jewish people memorialize.  From Yizkor on Pesach, to Yom HaShoah and Yom HaZikaron, we say prayers that allow us to reflect on those whom we have lost, both in our personal lives and in our nation. Yet, this year, as I sat in Yizkor, one line gave me pause.  In some of the versions of the אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים Memorial Prayer for Yom HaShoah and Yom HaZikaron, we say כלם קדושים, each and every person who died was holy.   But how is it that they are all holy?  Certainly some of those whom we think about on these days were unkind or inconsiderate or even cruel or dishonest.  Sometimes קדוש may not be the first or even the last word we use to describe them.   So why does everyone who died in these events get “bumped up” to the level of holiness? I spent some time discussing this question with our thoughtful KDS students, and we came up with a few answers that can teach us all impor

Dancing with Elijah:  Peace, Parenting and the Dialogue of Generations:  Lessons, Quotes and Questions for Your Pesach Seder If one were to think about the central “hero” of the Passover story, Moshe would most certainly come to mind. The man who rose up, saw injustice, led the people and challenged the authority of Pharaoh ushering the people to freedom—Moshe is the obvious choice to star at our Pesach tables.   Yet, Moshe probably would not win, as it is commonly known that his name is not even found in the Haggadah. So who is the next in line? To me, the Biblical character that is most fascinating at the Seder is Eliyahu HaNavi, Elijah the Prophet.  Eliyahu is central to introducing Pesach each year in the Haftarah of Shabbat HaGadol and we famously invite him in and sing his song each year toward the end of our Seders.    And I think it’s Eliyahu’s messages that are what we all need most right now.   Below are some key lessons on Eliyahu, some brief explanations, and sources and qu

The Brooks of Esther: Two Important Lessons by David Brooks to Lead into Purim Over the past number of years, I am one of the many who have learned from the wisdom of columnist and author, David Brooks.  Two of his pieces in particular helped to complement my learning of the Purim story this year. The first is a graduation charge called “The Great Unmasking” and the second is his book, The Second Mountain . (Sources below) A Message for our (Almost) Unmasked Times in the Holiday of Masks As most schools recently removed mask mandates, the Jewish holiday of masking being upon us is certainly timely. Purim is a story about hiding.  Esther, the woman whose name means,”I will hide,” hides her identity to the King. God is hidden as the Divine name does not appear even once in the book.   And we hide on Purim – we disguise ourselves and mask who we really are. And in the past two years, mask on/mask off is sadly a reality we have all come to know all too well.  Brooks shared this thought abo

 How to Sing our Purim Songs in Adar Alef It’s February.  In my family, February is known as the “gut” of the school year.  It’s dark, it’s cold and the spring seems far off.  For many, finding joy is hard in the doldrums of the February routine.   Last week, as we were beginning to welcome Adar Alef*, someone started singing about joy.  Mi Shenichnas Adar, gets us into the spirit of welcoming Adar, the month of Purim, with happiness and simcha..  “Isn’t it a bit early?”, asked someone in the group.  The “real” Adar, is Adar Bet, where we celebrate Purim and truly get into that Purim spirit. This week began Adar Alef and  there are no festivities in the offing. Is the rule of increasing joy for Adar applicable to both Adars or just for the second one? R. Eval Vered insists that both Adars are ones that require us to increase our joy, yet there are two kinds of joy and each corresponds to the different Adars..   While some events give us sadness and some give us joy, events are external

The Gods of Doors and So Much More–Parshat Bo and the Making of the Month of January In his new book, The Week: A History of the Unnatural Rhythms That Made Us Who We Are David Henkin talks about the different ways we count time and how those ways define our identities as both Jews and dwellers in the outside world each and every day.  We live in 2 worlds when it comes to tracking time.  On the one hand, we count time on our Jewish calendar, a calendar which runs primarily by the moon.  It helps us pace our lives through the rhythms of the holidays, months, Shabbatot and seasons.   And there is the way that we count time as members of the modern world using the Gregorian solar calendar.  That calendar marks events in our “secular” world like we did just last Friday night when we welcomed 2022.   And January has its unique feel.  The winter doldrums, shorter days and lots of snow and ice are nothing to get so excited about.  I often countdown the days until Spring in January.  But after