Insights from Reverend Hazan Benlolo

Exodus 10:1–13:16
The last three of the Ten Plagues are visited on Egypt: a swarm of locusts devours all the crops and greenery; a thick, palpable darkness envelops the land; and all the firstborn of Egypt are killed at the stroke of midnight of the 15th of the month of Nissan. G‑d commands the first mitzvah to be given to the people of Israel: to establish a calendar based on the monthly rebirth of the moon. The Israelites are also...Read more...

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Dear friends and congregants,

Here is just a small peak from this past Tuesday at the new Spanish and Portuguese Recording Studio. Hosted by Dan Sequerra, 15 enthusiastic singers and musicians gathered for an incredible evening of song and performance. The evening began with a sumptuous meal followed by non-stop music. The last stragglers left the studio at midnight! Claude, one of the amazing singers, wrote in our guest book...Read more...

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We're almost at the finish line!

This week's haftarah is the fifth of a series of seven "Haftarot of Consolation." These seven haftarot commence on the Shabbat following Tisha b'Av and continue until Rosh Hashanah.

Forsaken Jerusalem is likened to a barren woman devoid of children. G‑d enjoins her to rejoice, for the time will soon...Read more...

The Shabbat before Tisha B’Av, is called Shabbat Chazon – the Shabbat of foretelling – as we read the Haftarah portion from the prophecy of Isaiah (1:1-27), as the final of the “three of affliction,” readings.
Rabbi Mendel Hirsch points out, the prophet does not lament because the Bet HaMikdash (The Temple in Jerusalem) was destroyed; rather he...Read more...

with Charly-Marc Hadid

This week’s Haftarah is the second of a series of three “haftarot of affliction.” These three haftarot are read during the Three Weeks of mourning for Jerusalem, between the fasts of 17 Tammuz and 9 Av.

The prophet Jeremiah transmits G‑d’s message to the Jewish people, in...Read more...

This week’s haftarah begins a series of three haftarot known in halachic literature as telata depur’anuta, “the three (haftarot) of retribution.” We read these haftarot during the three-week period between the seventeenth of Tammuz and the ninth of Av—the time when we mourn the destruction of...Read more...