Words From Rabbi White

In honor of the special Shabbat this week:  Shabbat shuva.  Wow! ​This must be more than a coincidence!  Let me explain.

A strange phenomenon has come to my attention. A feeling of depression has overcome some senior Jewish citizens during the pandemic.

Although having lived a traditional Jewish lifestyle for the past many years, they remember the times when they were not observant of mitzvot, and they...Read more...

This motsa'ei shabbat, Saturday night at 11:00 pm, we have our traditional first night of selichot.

I can't forget this parasha. You see, when I was in grade 1, growing up in Boston, my class celebrated our having completed the knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet. We all came on stage, every child holding a large cardboard letter.  My letter was "tet," or "tes" as we pronounced...Read more...

We are all familiar with the midrashim that appear in Rashi's commentary. Yet, I personally have always been fascinated by Rashi's knowledge of the Hebrew language. A wonderful example appears at the beginning of this week's parasha. The word `aharei is followed by the word derech (in the 5th verse of the parashah, verse 11:30) Rashi shows that the Torah reader must pause between the 2 words, since the...Read more...

After 3 weeks of rebuke in the haftarah from Jeremiah and Isaiah, we now begin 7 weeks of haftarot of consolation, starting with Isaiah chapter 40.

The words of Isaiah that we read last week were particularly harsh. Yet, the prophet's harsh message must be tempered by words of hope.

When Hashem first spoke to Jeremiah, describing the task of the...Read more...

In the period of the 3 weeks, which began last Sunday, we read special haftarot. This week, the first of the 3 special haftarot, is from the beginning of the Book of Jeremiah. HaShem appoints Jeremiah to be a prophet, telling him that he is predestined for this task.

Yet, Jeremiah hesitates. He feels he is not worthy of the task. According to a midrash, in the back of Jeremiah’s...Read more...

As I am sure you know, in the last several years, schools have been very sensitive to bullying. For example, teachers are given seminars on how to detect bullying, and how to be careful not to be guilty of bullying their students.

Today’s haftara, taken from the Book Shoftim (Judges) tells the story of Jephthah (Yiftah in Hebrew.).  He was a “gibbor hayyil,” (an “able...Read more...

Why did HaShem have to command Moshe to send out spies, if HaShem had promised the people that they were going into a good land.?

Rabbenu Bahya ben Asher was an important early Sephardi Biblical exegete. His commentary on the weekly parasha always begins with a quote from Mishlei (Book of Proverbs.)

For this week’s parasha Shelach, he selected a verse from chapter 21 of...Read more...

In last week’s edition of the Forward, a tech expert wrote that it would be possible now for a computer to write a sefer Torah. The computer could be programmed to write it perfectly. There would be no need for a sofer, a scribe, to toil for a year, putting in hundreds of hours.

Well, what do you think? Would this be a valuable time saving innovation?

Read more...

When I relate the following, there are tears in my eyes. A mixture of tears of happiness and tears of sorrow. You see, my wife, Sara Devora, daughter of Raizel, a"h, passed away shortly before Passover. And just before Lag ba`omer, a week ago Thursday, my granddaughter Rosy gave birth to a girl. And this past Shabbat, her husband Elchanan named the baby in his shul: Sarah Devorah, also daughter of Raizel. May they...Read more...

As this week's double parasha is titled, in translation, "after the death: holy" it seems most appropriate to write a few words about my wife a"h, who passed away unexpectedly on the 2nd of iyyar.

Sorah Devorah (Sandra Sukey,) daughter of Yehoshua and Raizel Hirsch, was by all accounts, a remarkable personality. [Although her physical health had been precarious for the past...Read more...

​As this week's double parasha is titled, in translation, "after the death: holy" it seems most appropriate to write a few words about my wife a"h, who passed away unexpectedly on the 2nd of iyyar.

Sorah Devorah (Sandra Sukey,) daughter of Yehoshua and Raizel Hirsch, was by all accounts, a remarkable personality. [Although her physical health had been precarious for the past...Read more...

Here is one of my favourite divrei Torahs.

I have said it in the past in Chevra Shaas, and said it at the table in my daughter's house on the last day of Pesah:

There is an ancient midrash that tells us that we can determine the dates of the holidays according to the days of Pesah.

It is a system called "at bash," matching the letters in forward and reverse order, and goes like...Read more...

Ki Tissa'  5781

A point of Hebrew grammar, leading to a nice idea:

Our parasha begins with the words “ki tissa’”. It is usually accepted that every Hebrew verb has 3 root letters. The root of “tissa’” is clearly the 3 letters “nun,” “sin”, “‘aleph.” But what happened to the “nun”? It has disappeared, and assimilated into the “sin”. [So, you see, letters can assimilate, just like people!]...Read more...

Purim is this coming week, and with Purim, we complete the cycle of holidays observed during the Pandemic. [We were fortunate last year, as we didn’t have to close the synagogue until after Purim.]

Purim is the holiday of ve-nahafokh hu’, that is “topsy turvy.” i.e., the mighty kingdom of Persia was planning to exterminate the Jews, but we came out victorious. This was...Read more...