Members Area
Coming Soon!
Divrei Torah
Sort By: Title | Author | Date
Divrei Torah 2011-2012 By:Lincoln Square Synagogue July 31, 2012 COMING SOON In the coming weeks, this space will include a list of available Parshiot, and have a downloadable PDF/ Word Document with guidelines to help you if needed. Please feel free to browse our collection of Divrei Torah below. |
D'var Torah - Chukat By:Solomon Max June 29, 2012 Chukat has long been considered the epitome of the definition of a חוק, a commandment that must be obeyed even though there is no apparent reason for its existence. A ritual for generating ashes in a specific way is described in the Torah reading. Rashi notes; Because Satan and the nations of the world taunt Israel, saying 'What is this commandment and what reason is there for it', on this account the Torah uses the term Chukah about it, implying: It is an enactment that I have established; you have no right to criticize it. There are many difficult-to-explain details of the ritual that the Torah lists, and the oral law adds further complexity.
|
D'var Torah - Shelach By:Alan and Robyn Samuels June 15, 2012 |
D'var Torah - Behar Bechukotai :How to Criticize By:Jesse Cogan May 18, 2012 Are you mevaker chole if you spend thirty seconds with a kid with cancer? Two hours with your uncle and his heart attack. Five hours with a man you hardly know. Can you ask an orayach to sleep on the couch? Not to open the refrigerator? Give him the drippy garbage to dump on his way out? Unlike bread or Wacky Max, the amount that qualifies for kiyum of Gmilus Chassadim is elusive. Is a penny enough? A quarter? The shirt off your back? Since you aren’t really sure that your chesed was mikayam the mitzvah, you don’t make a bracha. |
D'var Torah - Emor By:Mark Hus May 11, 2012 Every time we read the section of Parshat Emor that deals with our holidays and how they are to be observed (today, as part of the regular rotation, and on the second day of Pesach and the first two days of Sukkot), I am struck by a single sentence which seems totally out of place. In its discussion of Shavuot, the Torah suddenly veers away from the issue at hand and directs: And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not completely remove the crops in the corners of your field as you reap and you shall not gather the gleanings of your harvest; instead you shall leave these for the poor and the stranger, I am the Lord your G-d. (Vayikra 23:22) |
D'var Torah - Acharei Mot-Kedoshim By:Solomon Max May 04, 2012 On the 8th of Iyar I commemorated the Yahrtzeit of my mother, a'h, who passed away in Israel in 1986. She arrived in the United States from Vilna at the age of 3, and was raised in New York City by parents who were Jewishly educated. She herself received a thorough Jewish education while also attending public schools. She majored in Mathematics at Hunter College, and married my father - an American born Orthodox Rabbi Moshe Max, z'l, who graduated from RIETS in the 1920s. My mother and father moved to Israel in 1966. My mother taught music at the Yeshiva of Flatbush - she was a skilled pianist. Many in the Jewish community learned their first Jewish songs from her. She embraced her role of Rebbetzin and taught classes in Jewish laws and texts throughout my father's years of being a congregational Rabbi. This week's Torah reading includes the description of the Yom Kippur service, mentioning the death of Aaron's two sons, the laws of appropriate marriage, and what has been described as an expansive listing of the laws given in the Ten Commandments in Kdoshim, which contain the core tenets of Judaism. |
D'var Torah - Tazria-Metzora By:Ari Klapholz April 27, 2012 Our first parsha opens with the following: 12: 2-6 “…isha ki tazria v’yalda zachar v’tama’ah shivat yamim…uvayom hashmini yimol b’sar orloto…. v’im n’keva teled…. uvimlot y’mei tahara tavi keves etc…. concluding with 12:8…”v’kiper aleha hakohen v’taheira.” What defines the axis between conception, birth, circumcision, and the progression from impurity to purity? Textually, the most prominent halacha learnt from the juxtaposition of the law of circumcision to the commandment of the post-partum nidah period, is that the commandment of circumcision on the eighth day overrides the prohibitions of melacha on Shabbat (Shabbat 132b). But again, what underlies the need for this convergence of the mother’s journey with that of her offspring? |
Living for Tomorrow By:Jesse Cogan April 20, 2012 Nadav and Avihu were tzadikim with an uncontrollable urge to serve Hashem. The rush they felt from the heavenly fire was addictive. They wanted more and they wanted it now! Their immediate need for gratification however, turned a week of celebration into a personal and communal tragedy. Impatience is not the Jewish way, yet it has plagued even the holiest of men. Moshe couldn’t wait for water and had his ticket to Israel revoked. Bnei Yisroel grew impatient for Moses, built a calf of gold to replace him, and demanded to be forgiven now! Like Nadav and Avihu no one lost their holiness, but Hashem did make them pay.
|
D'var Torah - Achron shel Pesach By:Shelley & Ruvan Cohen April 12, 2012 The reading of עשר תעשר andכל הבכור for the final day of Pesach is an interesting choice for Chazal. On the one hand, there is the obvious explanation that the conclusion of the reading describes the observances of all of the holidays. But is there some additional message that this parsha has that makes it appropriate for the Chag and invested with greater meaning that should inform our lives? We would like to suggest the discussions of ביכורים ,מעשר, and שמטה have a strong message both on the holiday in which we celebrate freedom and for the entire year.
|
D'var Torah By:Mark Hus March 30, 2012 Since we have reached the last of the special Shabbatot that precede Passover, and since today is the BIG one (we know that because that’s what we call it), I would like to explore the unified theme that I believe is presented to us as we approach the holiday on which we celebrate our nationhood. |
Shabbat:
May 17-18
This Week's Parsha:
Naso
Sign Language Interpreters available upon request. Please email inclusion@lss.org if you are in need:
Earliest Candlelighting:
6:37 pm
Early Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat:
6:45 pm
Candlelighting:
7:50 pm
Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat:
7:55 pm
Hashkama Minyan:
7:45 am
Services in the Main Sanctuary:
9:00 am
Latest Shema:
9:14 am
Beginners' Service:
9:15 am
Rabbi Herschel Cohen Memorial Minyan:
9:45 am
Beginners Mishna Chabura:
5:55 pm
The Louis Lazar Memorial Talmud Class:
6:40 pm
Samson Raphael Hirsch Bible Class:
6:40 pm
Mincha:
7:40 pm
Ma'ariv / Shabbat ends:
8:50 pm
SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK OF:
May 19 - May 24
Morning Services Sunday:
7:10 & 8:30 am
Morning Services Monday & Thursday:
7:00 & 7:50 am
Morning Services Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday:
7:10 & 7:50 am
Mincha/Maariv Sunday-Thursday:
8:00 pm
Daf Yomi Sunday:
7:45 am
Daf Yomi Monday & Thursday:
6:15 am
Daf Yomi Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday:
6:20 am