Tag: Torah

  • Imprisoned Childhood /Holy Justice

    Right before a judge decides a sentence, they should be reminded they are sentencing that man’s children, too. Prison is full of fathers. Midjourney AI-Generated Image Some are the “stereotypical” 20-somethings who got a girl (or girls) pregnant on their way to prison, but most I’ve met are men in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and…

  • Quick Torah thought: Metzora

    Hi Friends, One quick Torah Thought inspired-by this week’s parsha, Metzorah: We again visit the topic of Tzaraat, an infliction of the surfaces of the house, property, clothes, and (eventually) body, as a punishment for speaking “Lashon HaRa” (“The evil tongue”). The Rambam explains that Lashon Hara, *true* gossip about someone, is more evil than…

  • 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…

  • The Men Inside (Child Abuse)

    “At 7, I was bound, abducted, and forced to have sex with other children, in a cinderblock room, much like I was kept at The Building,” says David (name changed). He has said this twice, in the past week, the entire time we’ve known each other since he arrived from “The Building”, what the men…

  • 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…

  • If you build it…

    Hi Friends, A few quick Torah thoughts… In this and last week’s Torah portions, YaYakhel and Pikudei, G-d tells Moses to have the people build the Mishkan, Tabernacle, a traveling Temple that our Rabbis explain was a “home for G-d” to convene with the Jewish people until we built the Temple in Jerusalem, a model…

  • Fight the Weak

    Joey (name changed) twitches like a lovable toy robot dropped down the stairs a few too many times. The batteries are fully charged, but jerky movements let you know something’s loose inside. Still, his smile radiates with a shy glee and his eyes [reveal] a brain working overtime. It doesn’t tell him nice things. “I…

  • Donkey Empathy

    This week’s Torah Portion, Mishpatim, is perhaps my favorite. Like a great standup bit, it seems to be random observations going nowhere in particular, until the final revelation. Hot off the giving of the Ten Commandments, we have a Parsha that is different from many which came before it. There are no spectacular miracles, no…

  • Asking for help

    Hi guys, Now that I have some breathing room, a bit of a longer note… Before I begin: Next visiting day is SUNDAY. Please message my dad [email protected] if you’d like to visit and haven’t filled in a form. (G-d willing those who have will be approved before this Sunday and we’ll update you this…

  • So we’re part evil inclination…

    Earlier in the week I read in a commentary on the Torah, by Rabbi Boruch Adler, that the tradition states Cain was the product of the Nachash (serpent) and Chava, that the angel of death / evil inclination directed the Nachash to mate with Chava! Also, because Noah’s wife Naama descended from Cain, and we…

  • 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?…

  • In the Image of the Creator

    I have been thinking a lot about hunger lately, because I’m often hungry here. The kosher meals, cheap TV dinners full of soy, sodium, and fillers, are calorie-short, even if you could eat all of them. They are frequently moldy or full of melted or broken bits of plastic. I kept a log for a…

  • Family & Forgiveness : Reuben’s Voice (Abortion)

    One of the simultaneously most-painful and most-beautiful moments in prison is watching a small boy or girl cling to their father, grab him one last time, before visiting day hours are over. It may be the last time they see him for the week, or months if they live far away. You don’t want to…

  • Teaching Art in Prison

    Last night, I taught a drawing class to a room full of men accused of crimes ranging from armed bank robbery, to child porn, to drug running, to white-collar fraud, to illegal migration, to public corruption… The Education building of FCI Miami Low looks like a small school, but with the same heavy steel doors…

  • The 85 year-old little boy in prison

    “What were your parents like?” I ask Doc. Asking an 85-year-old man about his parents starts your brain doing math. They’ve have been born over 105 years ago… “My mom, and I know everybody says this, but my mom really was the hardest-working, sweetest woman that ever walked God’s Earth. Raised four boys without a…

  • 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…

  • A Hopeful Shabbat

    In this week’s Parsha, our forefather Yaacov promises Laban to work seven years to earn Rachel as his wife. The Torah says that because he loved Rachel, the seven years “seemed like little time to him” (Vayetse, 29:20). The Shadal (Trieste, Italy) explains that “those days were days of tranquility and pleasure, for he took…

  • 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…