From the Rabbi's Desk

Today, the day that I am writing these words, is the 15th of the month of Av. That means that we have 45 days until the holidays arrive. The holidays will arrive no matter what happens. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur cannot be moved to a more convenient time when we are not enduring such difficult times like right now. This is because the one constant that is always true is that the earth will rotate on its axis and it will circle around the...Read more...

The question is asked in the Talmud (Yoma 9b) as to why were the two temples destroyed in Jerusalem. What is intriguing about this question is that we know the answer. The Babylonians and the Romans waged a war against our people and demolished our central rallying place… our Temple. It is so simple to see that an enemy orchestrated this great disaster and yet why did the rabbis choose to ask such a question? The answer is that we must...Read more...

Today is the beginning of the three-week period from the 17th of Tammuz until the 9th of Av. Each year the Jewish people observe these weeks as a time of mourning and reflecting. We mourn something that we as a people have never seen or experienced. No Jewish person alive today has ever been to the Temple in Jerusalem. They have never participated in the sacrificial system and they...Read more...