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

At the end of the Pesach Seder just two weeks ago, we sang the famous Echad Mi Yodea where we recall all of the famous numbers from 1-13 in our tradition.For the number ten, we answer, asarah dibraya, the ten commandments. The aseret hadibrot are the famous “tens” we sing about,  However, there is another famous ten that also has to do with words, that is less known but so important.  With ten phrases, the entire world was created. The term for God’s spoken words in this Mishna is not dibur, it is, rather, amira. (Avot 5:21) While verbal statements from the Divine characterized each of these two critical moments of God’s chesed, God’s kindness, the Pachad Yitzhak, R. Hutner, picks up on this difference between the choice of phrases that characterize these two events.  The gift of the world’s creation through amira was done through the element of chesed, of a type of gifted kindness, known as chesed vitur. This is the type of kindness done without strings attached, o...

That City and that People we Call a Rose: Shushan, Shoshan and Moral Living from Purim to Pesach It is one of the low points of the Megillah.  In Ch.3:15, Shushan and its Jews are dumbfounded because of the decree of death, וְהָעִ֥יר שׁוּשָׁ֖ן נָבֽוֹכָה .    It is at this point in the book where the reader at our communal gatherings reads this verse in the somber tone of Eicha, reminding us of the lowest point of our people at the the destruction of the Temple.  Later in the Megillah, (8:15) that same city, Shushan and its Jews are rejoicing at their redemption, וְהָעִ֣יר שׁוּשָׁ֔ן צָהֲלָ֖ה וְשָׂמֵֽחָה.  It is at this point where all of the listeners in in our communal gatherings recite the verse in unison out loud to remind us of the city celebration. R. Zevin in his book LTorah vlMoadim focuses on the deep meaning of the name of the town in the Megillah, on the word Shushan.  He says that it is a hinting to the word Shoshana, to a rose.  It is ...

The Av and the Rav: A Timely and Timeless Lens on the Home/School Partnership With a weekly session with individual students, a biweekly meeting with the parents and a monthly conference with both parents and teachers, I spent the 1995-96 academic year participating in what was then known in the Teaneck Public School District as the Columbia Teaneck Collaboration Project. Created by my advisor at Columbia, this initiative was one where the school social worker, or in my case the social work intern, worked to facilitate a model where each voice in the life of the child contributed to presenting the broadest picture of the student’s daily experience and challenges.  This collaborative team strategized and implemented plans for school and life success. The foundation of this approach is no secret.  All school professionals know that the partnership of parents and teachers is critical to identifying and maximizing a student’s potential.   Each knows a truth about t...

Mishnaic Lessons and the Land Masses: Amos Oz, Rabbi Bechaya and a School Geography Bee This week, here in school we held our annual KDS Geography Bee. Our students awed me as they displayed amazing GPS-like knowledge of the world in which we live. Truth be told, I, as a student, would never succeed in a geography bee.    My sense of direction and maps is certainly not my strength to say the least.  But as I witnessed these amazing kids, it brought to mind some or the more spiritual lessons I have learned from geographical metaphors that can help to guide our spiritual lives.  From the Islands - Both John Donne and Simon and Garfunkel shared the view that no one can live a fulfilled life fully alone.  From S and G’s angry, injured subject who strove to be an island who “never cries” to the famous “No man is an island” poem, islands have always symbolized a fierce, but unrealistic independence.  It is an independence that waits for or relies on no ...

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 p...

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 Am...

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. ...