Remember Flip Wilson? Remember his femme-fatale, Geraldine? Whenever she had to explain her actions, she would say, “Thah devil made me do it! Whoo!!” Well, Geraldine, and everyone else, that just ain’t so. Yes, the Devil is the Prince of Lies and the Ruler of the Earth (at least, for
Have any of you heard this question before? It is similar to the statement about the elephant in the boardroom, meaning that both situations seem overwhelming. Eating an elephant and having one in your boardroom? Impossible, right? Not impossible. Not when you understand the meanings. The elephant in the boardroom
This past Monday, the 24th, was the celebration of Sh’mini Atzeret, the Eighth Day. This is also called Simchat Torah, or Joy of Torah. The joy is that we read the last sentence or two of D’varim (Deuteronomy) and then, as the congregation sings songs of joy, we turn the
Has a nice, catchy “ring” to it, doesn’t it? Fear abounds, where faith is not found…..I would expect to see that on a marquee outside a synagogue or a church. But what is the “fear” I am talking about? Is it fear of loss? Fear of death? Fear of going
I would guess that everyone, at one time or another, has thought to themself, “What if….?” What if I had known that was going to happen? What if I hadn’t said that? What if I had said that? What if I had met my wife earlier? I can tell you,
This parashah is the one between the end and start of the Torah reading schedule. On the eighth day of Sukkot, called Sh’mini Atzeret (also called Simchat Torah, Joy of Torah) we celebrate turning the Torah back from the end of Deuteronomy to the beginning of Genesis. Today’s parashah is
If you are a Baby-Boomer like me, you remember the great movies that had sequels. For my younger readers, that’s when you find out what happened after what you are watching. Today they’re all about prequels, finding out what happened before what you are watching occurred. We had “Son of
Anyone remember that old song? It was actually the title song to a Roy Rogers movie from the 1940’s. Basically, it tells of a man who doesn’t want to be restricted, a man who wants to be free to choose what he does and where he does it. God is
As we come to the final chapters of the Torah, we find Moses finishing his service to the nation of Israel (and to God) with a song, Â just as he did after crossing the Red Sea, when he was just starting. This “Song of Moses” is both a stern chastisement
Here I am, sitting at home, writing in my blog and wondering how much longer I will be able to go before the caffeine (actually, lack of caffeine) headache starts to hit. Last night began Yom Kippur, and we had a Kol Nidre (Hebrew for “All oaths”) service. Despite technical