Forty years wandering in the desert?  Our ancestors clearly needed a better road map.  It’s true for travel, for business and for synagogue:  if you don’t know where you want to go, you are unlikely ever to get there. With an eye towards improving the quality of the education Beth Shalom provides its youngest members,… [Continue Reading]

Paradise is a garden, the mystics tell us, where Jews study Torah all day.  If that is so, then Beth Shalom is becoming a taste of Paradise. The patch of grass out back, once home to a dilapidated Sukkah, a diseased Etrog tree and a tasteless fig, is being transformed into a gracious Gan Tanachi/Biblical… [Continue Reading]

One day’s fuel that lasts for eight? Now that’s a miracle we could use today! Global warming, limited energy supplies, and volatile prices all make the need for conservation of resources more important than ever. They also make the holiday of Hanukkah timelier than ever. According to the Talmud, one jug of oil, enough to… [Continue Reading]

There are no coincidences in Torah. No matter how curious a verse may seem, how unrelated it may appear to what precedes or follows it, there are profound truths to be mined in each line. In fact, encountering the unexpected in a passage is often a clue that something exciting is happening beneath the surface,… [Continue Reading]

There are no coincidences in Torah. No matter how curious a verse may seem, how unrelated it may appear to what precedes or follows it, there are profound truths to be mined in each line.   In fact, encountering the unexpected in a passage is often a clue that something exciting is happening beneath the surface,… [Continue Reading]

The “Season of our Rejoicing—zman simchateinu”: Sukkot is certainly that here in New Zealand. In the Northern hemisphere, Sukkot signals the approach of winter, but for us it signals that spring is in the air. After a long, rainy winter, we rejoice to enjoy the out-of-doors! The sukkah, a flimsy hut, reminds us of the… [Continue Reading]

The “Season of our Rejoicing—zman simchateinu”:  Sukkot is certainly that here in New Zealand.  In the Northern hemisphere, Sukkot signals the approach of winter, but for us it signals that spring is in the air.  After a long, rainy winter, we rejoice to enjoy the out-of-doors! The sukkah, a flimsy hut, reminds us of the… [Continue Reading]

In my grandparents’ apartment, there were two mirrors that faced each other. As a boy, I stood entranced by the countless reflections I saw in them, bouncing back and forth. I‘d move my arm, and hundreds of Deans would follow suit, arcing into infinity. I’d make a funny face, and my grin would repeat again… [Continue Reading]