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!!
Read more...
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.
Read more...
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...
VA-YEIRA' 5785
11/15/2024 12:25:54 PM
Dear friends,
ELECTION FALLOUTS
Here in USA, the Jewish community has been divided over the results of the Presidential election. At Bnai Jeshurun, a liberal congregation in Manhattan, congregants came together to “sit shiva,” to commiserate about the result, and to cry over the perceived threat to democracy. At the gathering, a prominent...Read more...
LEKH LEKHA 5785
11/08/2024 12:21:09 PM
I am writing on Election Day in USA. By the time you read this, we shall probably know the outcome. As you may know, Election Day is always, by law, on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November. Why on Tuesday? This law goes back to the first half of the 18th century. People couldn’t vote on Sunday, as many were in church. People who lived in rural areas might need Monday to travel to the polls. And...Read more...
BEREISHIS 5785
11/01/2024 12:53:26 PM
THE WAR HITS HOME
Dear friends,
We were so saddened to hear of the killing in Lebanon of Shulamit Foxman’s nephew: 43-year-old Captain Rabbi Avi Goldberg, son of Shulamit’s sister Rivkah. Rivkah had made aliya in ‘75. Avi leaves behind his wife and 8 children. Actually, as the Foxmans report, he didn’t accept being just a Rabbi, but...Read more...
SIMCHAT TORAH 5784
10/23/2024 12:32:34 PM
HAIL COLUMBIA!
For the first part of the holiday, we traveled to Passaic (a 20-to-40-minute drive, depending on traffic) to be with my son Yehoshua and his family. As usual, we had a wonderful time. It happens that an old friend of mine, Rabbi Charles Sheer, whom I hadn’t seen in over 50 years, was also visiting his son in Passaic, and was davening in the same shul as I...Read more...
YOM KIPPUR 5785
10/11/2024 10:40:37 AM
A MIRACLE: “BA-Z’MAN HA-ZEH.” IN OUR DAYS
Dear Chevra Shaas and Shearith Israel,
Did you pay attention to the great miracle we recently experienced?
I am writing this on October 7, the anniversary of that infamous Simchat Torah: the day when the dancing turned to grief, the day when everything...Read more...
NITSAVIM-VAYEILECH 5784
09/27/2024 11:52:19 AM
Dear mitpallelim,
The following was sent to me on Sept. 23 by our former student at Herzliah, Prof. Shawn Aster, who lives with his family in Beer Sheva, has served in miluim in Gaza, teaches Tanach studies at Bar Ilan, and would often daven with us when visiting his family in Montreal. I am reproducing it with permission:
For the last...Read more...
KI TAVO 5784
09/20/2024 12:48:30 PM
MONTREAL, JE T’AIME!
This past week, I made a brief trip to la belle province. Comme je me souviens, the Jewish community of Montreal is wonderful. My dear friends the Gehrs, who have been visiting from Israel in Montreal, had spent Shabbat in Teaneck with my family, and on Sunday morning we began our drive to Montreal. While there, I was hosted by my dear friends the...Read more...
KI TEITSEI 5784
09/13/2024 11:56:13 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearith Israel
This Sunday, September 15, at 4:00 PM, is the unveiling for our friend Malcolm Moscovitch a”h.
It is at De la Savane, section Shomrim LaBoker (towards the rear of the cemetery.)
********
On Sunday, 12 Elul, Mr. Leonard Mintz observes yahrzeit...Read more...
SHOFETIM 5784
09/06/2024 09:06:34 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas/ Shearith Israel
WE NEED CONSOLATION
Oy, we heard such terrible news this week concerning the 6 hostages. Let us pray as hard as we can for a “nechama,” as we have begun the month of Elul, and we read this week the 4th of the special haftarot of consolation. This week we read from Isaiah, chapters 52 and 53.
Read more...
RE'EH 5784
08/30/2024 10:15:56 AM
We were all saddened to hear of the sudden passing of Dr. James (Jim) Archibald, a former President of the Spanish. He taught at McGill for over 50 years and was indeed “a gentleman and a scholar,” besides being the father of two of my students at Herz. “yehi “zikhro baruch.”
******
This Tuesday, 30 av, Leonard Mintz observes yahrzeit...Read more...
EIQEV 5784
08/23/2024 10:55:57 AM
Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearit Israel,
I know that I have related this meaningful personal story to you in the past. However, in light of the terrible problems that Israel has been facing since Simchat Torah, and especially as I see the vicious protests going on now in Chicago, I felt that I must repeat it, as it is an expression of how precious the Land is to all of...Read more...
VA'ETHANAN 5784
08/16/2024 01:29:16 PM
THOUGHTS FROM EICHA
This past Tuesday night, in shuls around the world, people gathered to hear the Book of Eicha, “Lamentations.” According to tradition, it was composed by the Prophet Jeremiah, describing the destruction in the Land of Israel, at the time of the churban of the first Temple in the 6th century BCE.
I have always been...Read more...
DEVARIM 5784
08/09/2024 11:50:18 AM
First of all, I must apologize for the incorrect date that I gave for Rosh Hodesh in last week’s bulletin. Fortunately, we have clever people in Chevra Shaas who caught the mistake. So, BH, I don’t think anyone was misled.
********
Mariam Mintz and Stanley Goldstein observe for their grandmother Mania Wittenberg on Monday, 8 av; Maggy...Read more...
MATOT-MASEI 5784
08/02/2024 11:39:05 AM
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY?
We are now in the midst of the “three weeks,” leading up to the saddest day in the year, 9th of Av. In these three weeks, we read special haftarot, not directly connected to the weekly parasha.
An incident that happened many years ago comes to mind. As some of you may know, my first permanent position was...Read more...