Tag: Jews

  • Boundaries & Birds

    Hi Friends, Hello from FCI Miami where the geese and birds had babies and are training them around the lake. It’s pretty cute, and an unexpected joy to watch. A few quick Torah thoughts for this week: I’ve been learning Bava Bathra (Basra), a tractate of Talmud that deals largely with architectural & civil planning…

  • Sanctuary, not Sacrifice

    This week we begin reading VaYikra (Leviticus), the Torah’s central book literally (3 of 5) and ethically. The sages say children should begin their learning not with Bereshit (Genesis, “In the beginning…”) but VaYikra, saying “Let the pure come and study purity” [1]. Rabbi Akiva says the core of Judaism is found in it, “You…

  • Times have changed!

    Back in the 90s, if folks wanted to be entertained they had to call a phone number to hear which movies were playing in theaters. Now they just set fire to Minneapolis. People used to think it was good to discriminate based on race, now they think it’s very good. Men used to call women…

  • “Manning Up”

    A strange set of stories introduce us to Israel’s greatest prophet and leader in this week’s Parsha, Exodus: “It happened in those days that Moses grew up and went out to his bretheren and observed their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man, from his brethren. He turned (faced) this way…

  • It’s a pleasant torture

    A friend here, Martin, was chatting with me and said his mom was always asking him, “What trouble is you trying to get out of”? It occurred to me, what if she’d asked him, “What are you trying to get into?” Are you trying to get into business? A healthy relationship? School? A nicer community?…

  • Judaism through new eyes

    Shavua Tov. This was a laid-back Shabbat with some nice highlights. “Bek” (Dennis Gogel), the German soldier who discovered he’s Jewish in prison, attended Friday night services and got his first Aliyah to the Torah (being called up to the Torah) this morning. I was leining (reading the Torah), and it was super nice to…

  • Bar Mitzvah #2 – Weekend Update

    This week I leined (read for the congregation) the Torah portion of Lech Lecha, the third Torah portion, where Abraham leaves his father’s land and heads to what becomes Israel. This was, I learned after, the first time the Jews at FCI Miami have had a Minyan (10 Jewish men) and read from the Torah…