Ideas rooted
in community

You can feel summer arriving in Harlem: longer light, looser schedules, kiddos (ours, at least) drifting toward camp mode, calendars beginning to scatter.

In this week's Torah portion, Shelach, we learn about twelve spies sent by Moses into Canaan to scout out the land before the people inhabit it.

Here's a quick thought about the power of community (and a peek into the day-to-day of a rabbi).

In Parshat Behaalotecha, the Torah describes the cloud of God’s presence hovering over the Mishkan in the desert.

In the portion of the Torah that Jewish communities all over the world will read this Shabbat, called Naso, we receive instructions for the Birkat Kohanim, the blessing bestowed onto the community by the priests in the Mishkan.

What are the virtues in each of us that serve us beautifully in many situations, but become our Achilles’ heel in others?

Parshat Bamidbar begins, as its name suggests, bamidbar — in the wilderness.

And so I set off for one of the most meaningful and favorite rabbinic tasks: helping to shepherd people—young and old, men, women, and children—through the last stage of their conversion process.

Behar-Bechukotai reminds us that abundance is not only having enough grain. It is also having the courage, imagination, and spiritual discipline to hold the old and the new in the same room.

This week’s parsha, Emor, includes the Torah’s instructions for the holiday of Sukkot: “In booths you shall dwell seven days.” On the surface, this is a very physical commandment.