Rabbi Konigsburg's Blog

The story of Mattathias (Matityahu) and his five sons lies at the center of our celebration of Hanukkah. As conveyed in the apocryphal book of Maccabees, we learn of his zeal to repel the Syrian-Greeks, who sacked the temple after their successful campaign against Ptolemy in Egypt. We learn that the villain is the Hellenistic King Antiochus, and on this Festival of Lights, we recall how the small band of Maccabees repelled the stronger and...Read more...

There aren’t many rocks in my life. Actually, there are a lot of rocks in my life, but I don’t really pay close attention to them; unless they are stuck in my shoe, or spit on my windshield from the dump truck ahead of me on the highway. Yet, in our walls, and in the asphalt that makes up the concrete jungle of our urban lives, there are rocks and minerals. And these rocks grant us protection and stability.

One of the plot...Read more...

“A man is known by the company he keeps.” Which is to say, we tend to associate with people who are like us, and we reinforce each other’s positive and negatives behaviors. And perhaps it is this axiom that has always led me to believe that the Noah of the Bible was a recluse. Afterall, if the whole society is corrupt, then it must be that Noah is righteous because he has disassociated himself from the rest of society. He can transcend...Read more...

I’ve come to be called Rabbi K out of necessity. If it was up to me, I’d just be called Hillel; but I must acknowledge the situations and religious functions where the title is appropriate. So naturally I’d concede to Rabbi Hillel. But at B’nai Torah, a rabbi’s first name (Hillel) is easily misread and misheard as a rabbi’s last name (Heller), thus I became Rabbi LastName. And since my last name is only spelled correctly 75% of...Read more...

As I have grown older, my love for a good board game has not changed. However, what has changed is the complexity level of the games I’m now playing. Perhaps the games themselves have become more complicated, perhaps I myself am a little more sophisticated, or perhaps both. But it is clear that learning these games, and playing these games, requires a lot more of my attention. Occasionally, I am learning a new game that has too many rules...Read more...

Shabbat Mattot-Masei

Over the last few decades, the way we take pictures has changed. I often find myself tricking the people who are the subjects of my photos by taking multiple pictures AS I count to three, and not just one single click at the culmination of...Read more...

I am a Rabbinic Jew. Not because I went to seminary to acquire rabbinic ordination, but because the Judaism I practice is based on the interpretations of scripture through the lens of centuries of rabbinic discourse. This is to say that the religious laws that we encounter in our Bible are not always taken literally, but rather are understood via a particular legal system that guided early Jewish sages. Traditionally, this legal system is...Read more...

Being alone in the wilderness is a profound experience. Over the course of my life, I have been blessed with moments of solitude in nature, surrounded by the majesty of our universe. Whether on an endless beach alone in the early morning, a deserted trail on a forested mountainside, or on an outcrop beneath the blanket of stars in the Southern Negev of Israel, there have been a handful of moments where I have successfully encountered a...Read more...

I used to have an expensive watch that I kept in a box under my bed. It was a gift from a family friend for my Bar Mitzvah and was something I thought was pretty special. It was made with real gold, and had a nice leather band. It definitely added sophistication to any of my fancy outfits. I didn’t wear it often, as I was worried I would scratch it inadvertently or maybe even lose it. So I only wore it for special occasions. Yet in the long...Read more...

More than thirteen years ago, I used to make the argument about why eating meat made a lot of sense. Not only are our teeth sharp enough to chew meat and that our stomachs have enzymes to break down that meat, but meat smells and tastes really good. I can recall the aromatic smells of barbequing meat at state fairs, and how pleasing I found that smell. The meat wasn’t kosher, mind you, but the smell was quite satisfying. Since our bodies...Read more...

As I was aimlessly driving the streets of Sandy Springs trying to get my son to fall asleep in the back seat, it dawned on me that it’s quite strange to drive around aimlessly without a destination in mind. Usually, from the second I get into the car I have the route planned out; either in my head or on the GPS. Turn left in 500 ft, then turn right. Done and done. But when you are driving just for the sake of driving, where do you go? I...Read more...

When engaging in discourse on Israeli current events, one often hears people talk about a double standard. The idea stipulates that the world holds other countries to a particular standard, and a different one when it comes to Israel; usually a higher moral standard that requires Israel to justify actions that other countries don’t seem to have to justify. Instead, some people would argue that Israel should be held to the same standard as...Read more...

What is it about Passover that inspires those who don’t observe the dietary laws of Kashrut year-round to eat matzah for a week? And what is it about Passover that makes it more visible and celebrated than Shavuot, another one of the Shalosh Reglaim, the three pilgrimage festivals?
 
Part of the answer was explained by Marshall Sklare and Joseph Greenblum in the 1960s. Based on their research they concluded that in order for...Read more...

On the heels of the great sin of the Golden Calf, before the new set of commandments is carved, Moses exclaims to God: “Let me behold your presence!” Coming up from the spiritual low of the nation’s disloyalty to God and approaching the holy zenith of receiving the new tablets, Moses yearns to know God. But doesn’t Moses already know God!? Hasn’t he been in conversation with the Divine from his shepherd days at the burning bush? Why...Read more...

As Parshat B'shalach begins, we are told that God chooses not to take the Israelites on the shorter path to the Promised Land, through the land of the Philistines, but rather the round-about way in the wilderness and the Sea of Reeds. The Torah explains that if the Israelites were to take the shorter path than they would see war and they would want to return to Egypt. So instead they are led on a longer journey. And… it doesn’t seem to...Read more...