Rabbi's Message

Shabbat Shalom!  I hope that you and your family are settling into summer routines.  Rachel and I have sent our kids off to Camp Ramah this week, and now are getting a taste of the empty nester life (not bad ).  Hopefully the summer is a time to slow a bit, relax, refresh, and...Read more...

Last night was a wonderful evening of reflection and celebration of our TBS community at our annual meeting. Mazal Tov to all of our Service Award recipients, to our Staff Years of Service honorees, and to our David J. Levy Award recipient, Michele Golkow.  Todah rabbah to our outgoing board members and officers, and mazal tov to our incoming board members and officers.  Finally, thank you to Marty Chazin, our now Immediate Past...Read more...

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner tells of the time he brought a preschool school class into the synagogue sanctuary for a tour. He showed them the bimah, the ner tamid, and then finally, the aron kodesh, the holy ark.

“What do you suppose is in there?” he asked them.

“Nothing!” one child answered, “It’s empty.”

“A new car!” another shouted.

“A Torah!” responded another.

“I know! I know”...Read more...

This week’s double Torah portion, Behar-Behukotai, offers a sense of hope as God promises the Israelites that one day: 

וְנָתַתִּ֤י שָׁלוֹם֙ בָּאָ֔רֶץ וּשְׁכַבְתֶּ֖ם וְאֵ֣ין מַחֲרִ֑יד- I will grant peace in the land (of...Read more...

I had been living in Israel for nine months studying to become a rabbi.  What a blessing to experience the day-to-day life and culture of our homeland, a country that can be understood as nothing less than a miracle.  Day after day, I walked the streets of Jerusalem and traveled around the country, but this day was different.  As the sun began to set, Becca and I gathered with hundreds of people in a room that overlooked the...Read more...

I hope everyone had a meaningful Passover holiday and enjoyed some delicious hametz last night! With Passover now in the rearview mirror, we begin to turn out attention to the approaching holiday of Shavuot. Yet, oddly enough, despite specifying the date of every other major...Read more...

Today is Rosh Hodesh Nisan, the first day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, which means Passover is just two weeks away! It’s exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. There is a lot to do to prepare for Passover, on top of all of our other day-to-day responsibilities. Still, without that preparation, Passover wouldn’t be Passover. This preparation of course involves cleaning and cooking, but it also includes preparing for our seders....Read more...

Now that Purim is behind us, we turn our attention to Passover! Our liturgy helps us do this, as this Shabbat is Shabbat Parah. It is named for the parah adumah, or the red heifer, that we’ll read about in our special maftir Torah reading. Shabbat Parah always falls on the first Shabbat after Purim, and it represents the beginning of our preparation for Passover. The Talmud teaches that 30 days before Passover (right now we are only 25 days...Read more...