Rabbi Heller's Blog

Both our Torah portion and Haftorah this week have a special focus on female religious and spiritual leadership. In Beshallah, after the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, Miriam the prophetess, leads the women in celebratory dance and song. In the Haftorah (taken from the Book of Judges) Deborah the...Read more...

My remarks from this past shabbat, about how the things we say might be heard, about how our congregation welcomes LGBTQ+ Jews, and my own family’s journey, have provoked significant comment and discussion.  If you haven’t heard them you can watch them on https://vimeo.com/656188886.  You may also be interested in my comments from earlier this fall at https://www.bnaitorah.org/rabbi-heller-blog?post_id=1254055.  This week...Read more...

Why does God send an angel to wrestle with Jacob the night before he meets Esau? Of all days to not get a good night's sleep, and indeed, to start the morning limping, the date of the reunion with his hostile brother is certainly less than ideal!  Our sages suggest many reasons, including that idea the angel is meant to warn Esau- "If an angel can't defeat Jacob, you certainly...Read more...

This week’s portion is the first in the Torah to focus on death and mourning, and, in particular, on the concerns and priorities around choosing a grave site, where we might be buried, and whom we might be buried with  Those stories still have relevance for us today, in plans that our congregation has made over the past few years, and in particular in plans that we are considering, to create a new cemetery section to serve the needs of...Read more...

When I work with conversion students, we often spend an entire hour studying just one verse, Genesis 1:27: “And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Even translating properly it is a challenge. Was the first human single or dual, male or female? What pronouns to use for God is a whole other story. This passage is particularly illuminating as we wrestle...Read more...

Delivered At Congregation B'nai Torah, 2nd Day Rosh Hashanah 5782 September 8, 2021 Watch Video

When my oldest son was around 2 years old, we had a tough time getting him to put on his shoes and his coat. He wasn’t complaining about being shod. In fact, he was really leaning into the task....Read more...

Parashat Nitzavim provides a unique vision of a unified Jewish life. Moses describes a moment of unprecedented common experience, which brings together every segment of society, from leaders, elders and officials to the menial laborers, citizens and foreigners, men and women, young and old, to enter into a shared covenant. Today, those experiences where an entire community joins for common focus are increasingly rare. In our own...Read more...

  I’m delighted to have returned from a busy and refreshing mini-Sabbatical.  I feel a bit like Moses coming down the mountain after his 40 days.  He was ready to present tablets of inspiration, but was greeted with a Golden Calf.  No idols were installed in the sanctuary in my absence,...Read more...

Transitions in life, and transitions in leadership can be challenges or blessings, depending on how we prepare. Do we leave clear instructions, designate successors and ensure a legacy.  Our Torah portion describes two losses suffered by the Israelites in the desert, one of which leads to appropriate grief, followed by healing and continuity, the other to disaster.  As I prepare for a (temporary) transition in congregational...Read more...

This weekend, we are delighted to be sharing a simcha with extended family, friends and community, as we celebrate Ezra’s Bar Mitzvah.  Family have already started to arrive from out of town.   We are full of gratitude, not just for the simcha, but for the uniqueness of the timing. We had originally requested a date in April, closer to his birthday, but when dates were assigned several years ago we did not get our first...Read more...

We are a more than halfway to Shavuot!  Four weeks ago, we were dining on Matzah, and three weeks from now we’ll be up late studying to celebrate receiving the Torah. Our Torah portion, Emor, describes these seven weeks as a time of watchful counting, building excitement and bringing offerings of gratitude as the harvest got underway. However, in later times, the Omer became known as a mournful period- people avoided shaving, musical...Read more...

We expect the Bible to give us “thou shalts,”  “begats,” and the occasional “Hallelujah.”  And then there is the Song of Songs: 

“Give me of the kisses of your mouth, For your love is more delightful than wine.”

“His mouth is delicious, all of him is delightful, such is my beloved” 

“Ah, you are beautiful, my darling, Ah, you are fair. Your eyes are like doves behind your...Read more...

This week’s Torah portion begins with the commandment of the half shekel.  Each Israelite is to donate precisely that amount of silver to the construction of the Tabernacle, no more, no less.  The commandment serves two purposes.  The first is to provide the funding for this holy project, the second is to ensure an accurate count of the people.  This mitzvah offers important insights for some...Read more...

February is Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month, and our congregation is hosting a range of activities to participate. This Saturday night at 6:15 PM, our study will focus on Jewish text surrounding abilities and inclusion, and at 7:00 PM, Virtual and Drive-In Special Friends Havdalah will bring together different segments of our community. On February 16, we will be...Read more...

This week, we begin a new chapter in the life of our state and our country. Many have commented eloquently on the crisis we have weathered and the challenges still ahead. The Joint statement of the Conservative movement reflects some important thoughts on the state of our country. This Friday night as part of our...Read more...

Hanukkah, the festival of lights, begins tonight. Each night of the holiday, we are offering outdoor and virtual opportunities to make B’nai Torah part of the celebration. You will see the details below, but as we enter this unusual Hanukkah, I want to offer a thought about the miracle of the Hanukkah oil and our own personal refueling.

One of the first times Rabbi K was a passenger in my minivan, he was traumatized that...Read more...

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of maintaining connections under strain. Once a relationship has broken, how is it mended? This week’s portion, Chayee Sarah, is the first of three examples in Genesis of reconciliation of estranged brothers. In some cases, the animosity has a clear backstory in which both sides have agency. In the case of Jacob and Esau, it is the negotiation over...Read more...

Sometimes you have to go outside to re-enter. Sukkot, and the next few weeks of our synagogue’s activities, are both signs of that. The High Holidays are meant to be an emotionally intense time. The focus is very much on introspection, and our physical selves are subordinated to the spiritual task at hand. How can we think about eating when our very souls are at stake? It...Read more...

Today we begin Rosh Hodesh Elul. It’s a time of introspection and confession. I have a confession to make: I’m kind of over COVID-19. I’d really like to be done worrying about epidemiology and IT infrastructure. I want to get back to singing together in the sanctuary and eating bagels in the social hall, as...Read more...

This Shabbat is known as Shabbat Hazon - the Sabbath of visions of doom. Over 2600 years ago, and then again 1950 years ago, the threat of exile and destruction hung over the Jewish people. That threat came to pass on the 9th of Av (Tisha B’av)  which is observed next Wednesday night and Thursday. Indeed, the cycles of despair often returned to their low point at this season of the year, with inquisitions, crusades and...Read more...

This weeks’ Torah portion is full of rebellion and revolt, and offers some lessons for us on the power of great and bad leadership. Korach and his followers challenged Moses’s political leadership and the religious leadership of his brother Aaron. There were three stages of God’s response, and each phase had an immediate effect and left a permanent sign. The first two stages established that the rebels were...Read more...

What day is it? Blursday? About fleven o' clock? A lot of people tell me that they have had trouble keeping track of time in the past few months. The hours, the days, the months run together. Shavuot is unique among Jewish holidays that it, too, is slightly lost in time.

The Torah tells us that the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai on the first day of the month of Sivan and went through three days of...Read more...

We are a more than halfway from Passover to Shavuot! Four weeks ago, we were dining on Matzah, and three weeks from now, we’ll be up late studying (probably via Zoom) and eating cheesecake (hopefully not via zoom) to celebrate receiving the Torah. Our Torah portion, Emor, describes these seven weeks as a time of watchful counting, building excitement and bringing offerings of gratitude as the harvest got underway. However, in...Read more...

Last week, we finished reading the book of Exodus, which began with the familiar stories of liberation and revelation, highlighted the laws of a functional society, and concluded with a focus on construction of a physical structure, the tabernacle. This week, we begin reading the book of Leviticus, Vayikra, the most opaque of the books of the Torah. Normally, when Leviticus rolls around, rabbis scramble to find something else to...Read more...

This coming Sunday-Tuesday, over 18,000 pro-Israel activists, including over 30 from Congregation B’nai Torah, will be gathering in Washington, D.C. for the AIPAC Policy Conference. This year, there has been a lot of commotion about which politicians will be attending. Israel’s election is taking place on Monday, March 2, and absentee balloting is strictly limited, so many Israelis who would ordinarily attend will be...Read more...