Parashat Noach

Noah, the complete, righteous soul of his generation, gets himself good and drunk after the flood experience has pa...
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Parshat Lekh L’kha

Interesting, how people journey -- almost aimlessly -- yet en route encounter their kismet “And G-d said to Abra...
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Parshat Vayera

The Kids Are Watching This week’s Torah portion, Vayera, begins with our Patriarch Avraham sitting outdoors, in...
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Parshat Chayeh Sarah

In Parshat Chayeh Sarah, Avraham Avinu is confronted with the responsibility to find his son a wife.  His formula...
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Parshat Toldot

In Parshat Toldot, we encounter the remarkable event described in Genesis 27, as Yitzhak prepares in blindness t...
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Parshat VaYeitzei

In this week’s parasha, Yaakov flees for his life, departing from Beersheva back to Charan — back to the begin...
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Parshat VaYishlach

Was it Mort Sahl who said, "Just because I'm a paranoid, doesn't mean that they're not out to get me"? In this w...
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Parshat Miketz

It happens to all of us. You are with friends, engaged in small talk, and then someone makes a disparaging comment...
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Parshat VaYigash

After the Golden Calf, Moshe prays to God, begging forgiveness. In the course of his prophetic dialogue with the Cr...
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Parashat VaY’chi

ANOTHER DEATH-BED SCENE The Torah is a book of laws, 248 positive mitzvot and 365 negative commandments that set...
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Parshat Sh’mot

In the course of a lifetime, we encounter any number of friends. Some are friends by happenstance -- friends who h...
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Parashat Va-era

Parshat Va-era Parshat Va-era is the Sedrah that most thoroughly covers the substance underlying the Pesach narr...
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Parshat Bo

We read two puzzling statements as God prepares to exact the plagues in this week’s parasha. “And I will pass t...
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Parashat Bo (Commentary 2)

PARSHAT BO This week’s Parsha is one of the three or four Torah portions most central to the Jewish narrative,...
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Parshat Yitro

Tziporah enjoyed extraordinary social status within her native land. But after Yitro, the priest of Midian, gave hi...
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Parshat Terumah

Parashat Terumah is the first of the weekly Torah portions with a narrative that fails to excite. We have been read...
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Parashat VaYak’hel

VAYAKHEL: ON HEROES AND PROCRASTINATORS We have devoted the past few weeks to reading G-d’s instructions to th...
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Parshat M’tzora’

The traditional English translation for the disease tzora'at that is eponymous with this week's Torah portion, Metz...
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Parshat K’doshim

This week’s Torah portion lays out a comprehensive array of divinely ordained commandments that define the range...
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Parshat Emor

Not all of us realize it, but Parshat Emor is one of the most frequently read Torah portions we encounter. We typic...
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Parashat B’har

B’HAR-B’CHUKOTAI This week’s Torah double-portion, B’Har-B’Chukotai, begins: “And the Lord spoke to...
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Parshat B’ha’a’lot’kha

Not many people among Irvine's pedestrians and shoppers wear yarmulkes -- yet. The city's Orthodox Jewish communit...
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Parshat Sh’lach-L’kha

I first saw night-vision goggles when I watched Harrison Ford in Tom Clancy's "Patriot Games." The bad guys were p...
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Parshat Korach

Every time I meet a rabbi or pastor who now is a full-time stock broker, a realtor, an entrepreneur with a storef...
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Parashat Korach (Commentary 2)

KORACH: LEARNING TO LIVE WITH CLERGY-KILLERS Korach is a fascinating Torah Portion because, as happens so often...
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Parshat Chukat

This week's Torah portion bears one of the Bible's great enigmas. What exactly did Moses do that prompted the Div...
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Parshat Pinchas

We ended last week’s parasha with the Jewish nation crying as quasi-leaders sinned publicly with Midianite wome...
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Parshat Matot-Mas’ei

In our combined Sedra this Shabbat, the Jewish Nation’s unity seemingly faces its toughest test since Chet ha...
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Parshat D’varim

I primarily do two kinds of teaching: Torah classes in a wide range of areas within my extended congregational co...
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Parashat Eikev

This summer’s “cultural news” has been dominated by the deaths of several particularly prominent celebritie...
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Parashat R’ei

PARSHAT RE’EH In Parshat Re’eh, Moshe reviews the laws of kashrut. The Torah says that these laws separate u...
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Parshat Shoftim

When I was a kid, I was a very important person in shul. My dad was not at all prominent in the greater society -...
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Parshat Ki Teitzei

It took my divorce to understand fully all of those sermons that I had preached over the years about caring for t...
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Parshat Ki Tavo

This week's portion, Ki Tavo, is best known for its bikkurim (first fruits) passages, the verses we are commanded...
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Parshat Ha’a’zinu

Your child comes home and says she wants to be a doctor someday. Your spouse or serious beau tells you he or she...
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