BALAQ 5785 (oops: that "q" again)
07/11/2025 12:16:06 PM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearith Israel
MAZAL TOV to Rachel Asmare on her Bat mitsvah; Todah rabbah to mother Hirut for arranging the kiddush. May you have much...Read more...
HUQQAT 5785
07/04/2025 12:25:40 PM
Dear congregants of Chevra Shaas and the Spanish,
TODAY’S GRAMMAR LESSON
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QORAH 5785
06/27/2025 11:17:39 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Sheerith Israel,
First of all, you probably wonder why I spell this parasha, named after the villain, “Qorah.” Don’t most...Read more...
SHELAH 5785
06/20/2025 09:35:50 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Sheerith Israel
A TALE OF TWO CITIES: MONTREAL/TEANECK continued from last week.
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BEHA'ALOTEKHA 5785
06/13/2025 10:16:19 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearith Israel,
I apologize for not having written last week. My intention had been to sit down on Wednesday after Yomtov, but...Read more...
BAMIDBAR 5785
05/30/2025 11:12:47 AM
I am writing this “blog” on Yom Yerushalayim, the 28th of Iyyar, which happens this year to be on Memorial Day in the USA. As I wrote last week, Jerusalem Day has especial poignancy for me, as I remember so well the events leading up to it back in ‘67.
BEHAR-BEHUQOTAI 5785
05/23/2025 11:57:32 AM
Hazaq u Varukh to the Haimovici Family for the unifying Sefer Torah!
JEWISH VOICES FOR PIECE. (Not misspelled: see below)
Dear mitpallelim,
This coming Monday is 28 Iyyar, (Yom Yerushalayim)
I have often related the story of that morning in Spring, ‘67, when I was a student...Read more...
EMOR 5785
05/16/2025 11:48:53 AM
As I write these lines, the big news in the Jewish world is the return from captivity of Edan Alexander. His family lives in Tenafly, NJ, a town just about 15 minutes from my town Teaneck.
We pray for the immediate return of the others.
********************
The word “‘emor” is the imperative form of the...Read more...
AHAREI-QEDOSHIM 5785
05/15/2025 09:32:28 AM
HEY, YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT REUVEN SAID ABOUT LEVI!
Again this week, we have a double portion. Unlike last week’s double portion, many of this week’s laws are readily understandable to the modern mind.
Leviticus Chapter 19, verse 6, instructs us not to walk around being a gossip. That’s pretty relevant nowadays, as we are inundated by news...Read more...
TAZRIA METZORA 5785
05/02/2025 11:14:07 AM
This Shabbat is 5 iyyar. To avoid problems with hillul shabbat, Yom HaZikkaron and Yom Ha-Atsma`ut were pushed back to Thursday and Friday.
SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE JEWS
On campuses in Canada and the USA, many students and professors declare that when they chant “from the river…,” they are not antisemitic, just anti-zionist. My friend...Read more...
SHEMINI 5785
04/25/2025 11:26:21 AM
Dear congregants,
I trust that you all had a happy, healthy, and kosher Pesah. By now, our houses are back in pre-Pesah mode. As we say at the Maimuna “tirbachu vetis`adu,” i.e., may you prosper and eat well.
WE WERE SLAVES, AND THEREFORE…
Reflecting for a while on the seder: after the kiddush, the youngest...Read more...
TSAV/HA-GADOL 5785
04/11/2025 11:58:54 AM
HASHEM’S PROMISE TO AVRAHAM:
In the famous story of the “berit bein ha-betarim,” HaShem tells Avraham that the time will come when his descendants will be enslaved in a foreign land, but eventually they will leave with great possessions. (Genesis 15:14)
Indeed, this promise is repeated to Moshe in Shemot 3:22, and is described as actually...Read more...
VAYIQRA' 5785
04/04/2025 10:58:16 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas, Shearith Israel,
* Make sure to make the proper arrangements for mechirat chamets.
* On 6 Nisan, the yahrzeit of Moshe ben Pinchas, father of Raya Sukenik. May the neshama have aliya.
JEWISH VOICES FOR???
As you are aware, a couple of weeks ago, there was a...Read more...
PEQUDEI/HA-HODESH 5785
03/28/2025 11:44:26 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearith Israel
Last shabbat, I happened across the following amazing article. It was fitting for parashat vayaqhel, since the word "bemar'ot" which means "likeness, appearance" appears in that parasha, but it is also fitting for this week, since often Vayaqhel is joined to pequdei.
****
Hessy...Read more...
VAYAQHEL/PARAH 5785
03/21/2025 12:46:22 PM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearith Israel,
We (i.e. my daughter, son in law and I) have just returned from a wonderful (albeit very busy) couple of weeks in Jerusalem. The purpose of the trip, (besides breathing the air of the Land of Israel,) was to celebrate the marriage of our son/grandson Shmuel (aka Shmuli) to Sarah Kusnitz from North Carolina, who, like Shmuli, had made aliya several...Read more...
TERUMAH / SHABBAT SHEQALIM 5785
02/28/2025 11:11:08 AM
DEAR CHEVRA SHAAS/SPANISH
I hope that by now, the city old Montreal has begun to remove the snow, and life has returned to normal (Perhaps if Trump can get rid of the snow, Canada might agree to become the 51st state.)
This Shabbat is Rosh Hodesh Adar, day #1 of the happiest month of the year: Adar, the month that is the counterweight to the...Read more...
MISHPATIM 5785
02/21/2025 11:11:22 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearith Israel,
SLAVERY
For those who many have forgotten, slavery has been illegal in Canada since the Slavery Abolition Act of 1836. Yet, slavery is still prevalent in the modern world. According to Wikipedia, estimates of the number of enslaved people today range from 38 million to 49.6 million!!
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YITRO 5785
02/14/2025 10:03:14 AM
Dear mitpallelim,
TOO BAD JOHN HINCKLEY JR HADN'T STUDIED IBN EZRA
This week we read the 10 commandments. They are very logical: believe in God; do not worship other divinities; don't take the name of HaShem in vain; remember Shabbat; honour parents; don't murder, commit adultery, or rob. But the conclusion of the 10 Commandments is a bit...Read more...
BESHALACH 5785
02/07/2025 12:46:05 PM
Dear mitpallelim,
A Chasidishe vort: When I was younger, I usually disliked chasidishe interpretations, as I felt they were too far removed from “Peshat“. However, as I grew older, I realized that they often contain profound ideas and give great meaning to the parasha, despite not being “peshuto shel miqra’.”
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BO' 5785
01/31/2025 09:56:36 AM
Dear congregants,
TWO PLUS ONE = THREE
HaShem tells Moshe to go to Pharoah, but He uses the word “bo’”, which means “come,” rather than “lekh,” which would mean “go.” Baal HaTurim points out that the numerical value of the word “bo” is 3, [the letter ‘aleph =1, the letter “b”=2. ] This makes it easy to remember that...Read more...
VA-'EIRA 5785
01/24/2025 09:29:34 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearith Israel
A BEAUTIFUL STORY
A friend just sent me this story. I was moved by it, and said to myself that I must send it you:
The son returned to London from Israel after Sukkos.
He boarded the plane and looked for his seat.
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SHEMOT 5785
01/17/2025 10:13:26 AM
MOSHE GROWS UP
We all know the story. Moshe, who had been raised in the palace, and now has grown up, sees two Hebrew men fighting. He tells the “rasha’,” the bad guy, “why would you strike your fellow?”
How did Moshe know which one was the bad guy? The commentator Rashi, quoting Midrash Rabba and gemara Sanhedrin, notes that “even...Read more...
VAYEHI 5785
01/10/2025 11:05:37 AM
Dear mitpallelim,
IS THIS A WHITE LIE? (NO CONNECTION TO MY NAME!)
After the brothers returned from burying Yaakov, they were afraid that with their father gone, Yosef might think about all the trouble they had caused him, and that he might feel that now is “payback time.” [The Aramaic Targum uses the phrase “yittar devavu,” which seems to...Read more...
VA-YIGASH 5785
01/03/2025 11:34:37 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearith Israel
REFLECTIONS FROM HANUKKAH
On all eight days of Hanukkah, we recited Hallel, which is comprised of Psalms 113-118.
In the last chapter of Hallel, there are several verses that kept resonating with me: they seemed so relevant: “All nations encompass me, in the name of...Read more...
MIQQETS 5785
12/27/2024 10:11:44 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearith Israel
YOSEPH THE ONEIROCRITIC (Onirocritique in French)
Hope that word caught your attention. It means an interpreter of dreams, from the Greek “oneiros,” meaning “dream.” It’s a real word!
Pharaoh called Yoseph to interpret his dreams. Yoseph, as we know, answered...Read more...
VA-YEISHEV 5785
12/20/2024 10:47:41 AM
WHY DID YAAKOV SHOW FAVOURITISM TO HIS CHILDREN?
A question that perplexes many is why did Yaakov show favouritism to Yoseph? True, Yoseph was a “ben zequnim,” the youngest except for the “baby” Binyamin, but still: was that enough to warrant receiving special favours, such as the “ketonet passim,” [which Rashi explains was a sign of royalty, and according to Seforno a...Read more...
VA-YISHLAH 5785
12/13/2024 10:35:41 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearith israel
IS IT GOOD FOR THE JEWS? THEN AND NOW
The sudden turn of events in Syria has left us all perplexed. On the one hand, we are greatly relieved to see the diminishing of Iran’s influence and the toppling of the cruel regime of Bashar al-Assad. And yet, the jihadis who overthrew Assad are far from being...Read more...
VA-YEITSEI 5785
12/06/2024 11:57:44 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearith Israel
THE COMPUTER AND THE SIDDUR
This past Wednesday night, we began saying “ten tal u-matar” in the weekday amidah. Both the Koren and the Art Scroll siddurim give instructions that this should be said in winter, as opposed to “ten beracha” that we say in summer. Therefore, this is a sign that the winter has...Read more...
TOLEDOT 5785
11/29/2024 11:18:45 AM
DER MOYLAD VET ZAYN
Dear friends,
When I first arrived to become the Rabbi at Chevra Shaas, I sensed (and it was confirmed by the executive of CS) that I should always include several lines of Yiddish in my derashot. As the years passed, hardly any Yiddish speakers remained. So, vestigially, the only Yiddish I used was the announcement of the...Read more...
HAYYEI SARA 5784
11/22/2024 10:01:08 AM
IS IT STILL A WONDERFUL WORLD, MR. LOUIS ARMSTRONG?
Dear friends,
Well, it is a wonderful world, but people are making it crazy. In the Tachanun prayer that we say on Mondays and Thursdays, we say that we have become “a mockery among the nations, we have been considered like sheep meant for slaughter.” Before October 7, I thought those words...Read more...