by Rabbi Alexis Roberts

In Parshat Toldot, we have a familiar story and a familiar question arises from it: Do we control our own lives, or is everything pre-ordained? The answer is…yes. Here we find people struggling and scheming to bring about what God has foretold. Are they helping or hindering by trying so hard ? Are they promised abundance and given life experiences full of doubt, drought, and jealousy just to test and develop their characters? Is the abundance the real gift, or the faith to trust in it despite appearances? The answer is…yes.

I had a really strange dream the other night. I was in a restaurant and had ordered my meal, but when it came it was gross looking. It was hooves of cow, with the legs attached, and they were a deep red colored, like nothing I had ever seen.

“Waiter,” I cried, “this is not what I ordered.”

Waking up, I wondered, what could this dream mean? Then I remembered the very strange story of the red heifer, the red cow, the symbol of this very Sabbath, called Shabbat Parah. Parah means young cow, neither a calf nor a full-grown cow.

by Rabbi Shefa Gold

The Blessing

by Rabbi Alexis Roberts

The themes of the Torah portion for Shabbat Chanukah 2001 sound painfully relevant: how are brothers with a long history of mistrust and violence supposed to make peace? How will the victim act when he finally is in a position of power? How much can be risked or compromised for survival? Can people who have grown so very far apart, and live in different worlds ever come back together? Against all odds, but with the help of God, all ends well.

This Shabbat we begin the cycle of love; seven special Torah readings leading up to our New Year, Rosh
HaShannah, seven weeks in which we open to the experience of G-d’s love for us, and G-d’s yearning to have us draw closer.

This week we also commemorated the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, Tisha B’Av, which marks the destruction of the First and Second Temple, as well as other tragedies for the Jewish people.

by Rabbi Alexis Roberts

An old story is told about a medieval architect traveling to a city where a great cathedral is under construction, in order to study it’s design. He arrives as the day’s work is done. He meets a craftsman on his way home and asks about his work.

“What is it you are doing?”

“I am carving an ornate pair of doors, covered with figures representing Biblical stories.”

Next he meets a stone mason and asks about his work.

“What is it you are doing?”