Congregation Beth Mordecai
Congregation Beth Mordecai
An inclusive congregation affiliated with the Conservative Movement.
Your Jewish Home for the Soul!
An inclusive congregation affiliated with the Conservative Movement.
Your Jewish Home for the Soul!
April 5, 2018 By Beth Mordecai no comments.
Good Morning, I would like to share with you some thoughts on Passover, freedom and the Hallel prayers. Please let me know your thoughts or questions at Rabbi.SaraMetz@gmail.com Hallel is the collection of psalms we joyously sing to celebrate a holiday or the beginning of a Hebrew month, on Rosh Chodesh. Usually, we sing the psalms together as one unit during the day. Earlier this week during the Passover Seder, we said Hallel at night and it was split into two sections. This strange happenstance should be a bright flashing light, trying to teach us something. The way in which Hallel is split is symbolic. The first part of Hallel focuses on our joined communal memory of our redemption from[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal
March 23, 2018 By Beth Mordecai no comments.
Good Afternoon, “Come closer.” This is what God is saying to us. Our weekly portion, Tzav, focuses on the different types of sacrifices the priests or kohanim would offer in the Tabernacle. The Torah describes the multiple animal and grain sacrifices, what is given, when, why and how. I often say that every translation is an interpretation. The word “sacrifice” we use in English, has the connotation of giving something up, voluntarily or compulsory. In Hebrew, the word that is used to describe the animal, grain or act is korban, קרבן. This is the noun that comes from the Hebrew verb, להקריב. Sacrifice is not a good English translation as it does not give the same nuance as the Hebrew. The verb, להקריב,[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal
March 16, 2018 By Beth Mordecai no comments.
Good Afternoon, This week we start reading the book of Leviticus. This book outlines the many intricacies involving the procedures a Priest would conduct including sacrifices. In this Torah portion, Moses also teaches the people the laws of which sacrifices to give and when. One of the situations discussed is when a person commits an unintentional sin. According to Hasidic thought and various psychological approaches as well, when we do something inadvertently, it is not a mere accident but it is our motives coming out from deep in our soul or subconscious. These actions reveal what is truly going on deep in us. Thus, one should not only ask forgiveness and make amends for the actual act that was committed, but for[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Shabbat
March 9, 2018 By Beth Mordecai no comments.
Good Morning, This week I would like to share with you a thought-provoking interpretation of this week's Torah portion. This was written by one of my teachers, Rabbi Joel Levy, of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. We will discuss this further Shabbat morning. Please share your thoughts with me at Rabbi.SaraMetz@gmail.com. D'var Torah: A Woman's Gifts Rabbi Joel Levy, Rosh Yeshiva, Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem This double parasha, which describes the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness, mentions various contributions made specifically by the Israelite women. The first is found in Exodus 35:25-26: "...every woman wise of mind with their hands they spun ... the goats'-hair." By way of the ancient and time-consuming activity of hand-spinning - twisting fibers together to[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Shabbat
March 2, 2018 By Beth Mordecai no comments.
Good Afternoon, We have all see various depictions in film and art of Moses descending Mt. Sinai with the tablets in his hands. He then sees the Israelites below him worshipping the golden calf and throws the tablets down as they shatter below him. We read of this scene in this week’s parshah, Ki Tissa. The Kuzari, written by the medieval Spanish Jewish philosopher and poet Judah Halevi explains one possible reason for how the people could commit idol worship so soon after the revelation at Sinai. Halevi explains that the people were waiting with great anticipation for Moses to return. But what were they expecting to receive, the tablets of what was written on them? Halevi explains that the people needed some[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal
February 16, 2018 By Beth Mordecai no comments.
Good Afternoon, In this week’s Torah portion, Terumah, God instructs Moses to tell the people, “Make for me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them.” If we build a place for God among us, God will dwell there. God is giving us the message that we must actively work to bring God in and then God will reside in our midst. This Torah portion opens with instructions for Moses to transmit to the people of very specific building specifications to make the Mikdash, or the Tabernacle, to house the whole and the broken set of tablets with the Ten Commandments inscribed upon them. Lately, I have been thinking about what it means to build a sanctuary and to bring God in. In[...]
Category : Rabbi's Journal
February 3, 2018 By Beth Mordecai no comments.
Good Morning, “Remember the Sabbath day and sanctify it. Six days you will work and perform all your labor, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God; you shall perform no labor, neither you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your beast, nor the immigrant living among you. For six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it." Exodus 20:8-11 Every Shabbat morning we say these words just before reciting the blessing over wine, sanctifying the day of Shabbat. According to these verses, all the people and animals who either work[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal
January 26, 2018 By Beth Mordecai no comments.
Good Afternoon, What would you do, standing at the banks of the Red Sea or the Sea of Reeds, having just escaped slavery and you hear the Egyptian army approaching in their chariots? This week we read of the incredible miracle of the splitting of the Red Sea. Exodus Chapter 14:15 states: The Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry out to Me? Speak to the children of Israel and let them travel. The Medieval commentator, Rashi explains that this verse “teaches us that Moses was standing and praying. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, “This is no time to pray at length when Israel is in distress.” God then commands Moses to stretch his staff over the[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal
January 24, 2018 By Beth Mordecai no comments.
Good morning,
Please read the following thoughts on my past few days in Israel and share your thoughts with me at Rabbi.SaraMetz@gmail.com
Shabbat in Jerusalem is an incredible and special experience. While the city does not stop, it slows.
(more…)
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal
January 19, 2018 By Beth Mordecai no comments.
Our first day was busy and full of touring the Old City in the rain. We landed about 5:30 in the morning and had a full and exhausting day! Walking through the wet, slippery and history filled streets of the Old City, we learned together about the many different communities and religions who lived in Jerusalem and the many who still do.
(more…)
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal