Podcast

This week has been a bit more challenging navigating the ups and downs that come with living in this life of exile… as Mark Ronson says, Nothing Breaks Like A Heart. I woke up today and it hit me that we’re all just scattered pieces of a broken soul trying to come together and make it whole. The Parashah opens with: “And you will command the Children of Israel that they shall take for you clear olive oil, crushed, for illumination, to light a lamp continually.” What strikes me is that the action we are commanded to take is a physical action in a moment— it’s plucking an olive, squeezing, grinding and crushing it for its oil, in order to elevate it. and what’s to follow is illumination and a continual light. It is the same in life— only after …

The living revelation of the concealed (exodus: tetzaveh) Continue Reading

This week we read, “Speak to the Children of Israel and let them take for Me a portion, from every person whose **heart so moves them ** …” As Miles Davis said, “Don’t worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.” Sometimes we get stuck in overthinking or feeling we have to do so much that we don’t do it at all, when really we need to focus on doing even just one thing, but doing it with love, with a full heart, with a smile of sincerity. Giving is not enough if, when you give, it feels as if it’s being taken from you by the person who is receiving. There is a Chassidic story in which a wealthy individual who was known for his miserliness had decided to give R’ Shlomo of Radomsk a …

The love you take is equal to the love you make (exodus: terumah) Continue Reading

Loving is giving– it’s literally the root of the Hebrew word – אהבה/Ahava – hav’means ‘to give’. The basis of Jewish faith is action/giving of oneself, and it’s through the mitzvot that clarity, unification & love manifest themselves.This is the love we look for in partners and often feel lacking without one. But we often forget that all of reality is an opportunity for a nurturing relationship with Hashem, the source of everything. Ahava has the same gematria (13) as the word Echad (One) and so to reach oneness/love, we have to be in tune with the Source & when we connect love to its source, 13 + 13 = 26 (Hashem’s four-letter name.) As I read the verse na’aseh v’nishma/we will do and we will hear, I realized it’s contained in Exodus 24:7 and we can live this mindset of Exodus and Redemption …

Hear & Grow (exodus: mishpatim) Continue Reading

Years ago I connected with Nissim Black and we did a slew of songs together. I have seen him get bigger and bigger, and his light has reached just about everyone I know.. We all have so much light within us. That’s why we feel so much light when we encounter someone that’s fully tapped into their own. I played a show with him in LA and one line from his song with Levi Robin really resonated with me when he sang: when confusion takes a hold of me then I forget who I am but I don’t forget whose I am We have to always remember that Hashem is the source of everything and there is nothing but Hashem and that we each are precious to Hashem. How do we attempt to stay tapped into faith on the highest …

Seeing Sound (exodus: yitro) Continue Reading

The lesson that keeps coming up is that the path to the Promised Land is fraught with obstacles, and we each must overcome our doubts and confusions and continuously clarify our goals. This happened with Avraham, having to go to Egypt first, and now we see it happening to the entire Jewish nation. Instead of being led on a direct path, God took them around. As Mac Miller sings on Hurt Feelings, “I’ve been going through it, you just go around it.” It sometimes feels like the only way to power through something is to push directly through it, but sometimes a circular path instead of a direct one is more healing and conducive to holiness. It allows time for healing and clarity, and that is exactly how we as a nation pushed through the waters of the Red Sea and became free. This week we …

The Song of the Sea (exodus: beshalach) Continue Reading

The first mitzvah (commandment) given is to sanctify the New Moon. Rashi explains that Moshe wasn’t able to fully understand the mystery of the New Moon until Hashem showed him the exact moment of the moon’s renewal – and the deeper reason for the moon’s waxing and waning, one of the mysteries behind Creation, similar to the process of Tzimtzum – the contraction of God’s light – which led to the co-existence of light and darkness, revelation and concealment. The Jewish people and calendar revolve around the moon and its many phases, and the holidays follow suit. To give some perspective, we are now in the year 5783 according to the Jewish lunar calendar. Each month, the new Moon first appears in the sky and has no more than a small point of light. R’ Natan of Breslov explains that sanctifying even just a tiny …

Sing to the Moon (exodus: bo) Continue Reading

Hashem reminds Moshe that whatever impingement he feels he has, it cannot impede him from his destiny, nor the people from redemption. Once Moshe was able to rid himself of his doubt and submit to his destiny, he was able to perform miracles. & of course miracles happen every moment, disguised as nature, but if we cloud them with doubt or anxiety, we can’t see the miraculous good. With Pharaoh, we see after each plague he agrees that Hashem is the Almighty. But then he forgets, doubts, becomes faithless and fooled again, thinking he is in control and can save himself. And when Moshe brings the next plague, he begs for it to stop and be reversed, he says that he will allow Moshe to take B’nei Yisrael out and serve Hashem. But the plague abates, Pharaoh’s compassion abates and he hardens his heart again. …

From on High (exodus: va’eira) Continue Reading

When Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked Rabbi Everett Gendler to help in Albany, GA., Gendler replied, “Even though my furniture had not yet arrived, I felt the need to respond to Rev. King’s prophetic appeal to conscience.” He walked hand in hand with MLK and the Torah in Selma joined by one of my favorite Theologian/Poet/Philosopher, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. When Heschel was asked upon his return from the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights march with Dr. Martin Luther King, “Did you find time to pray?” he famously answered, “I prayed with my feet.” Some of Heschel’s most famous philosophical works charge human beings to sanctify time and space and to rediscover the power of wonder. Heschel’s famous expression “radical amazement” embodies his gift for highlighting spiritual curiosity and grandeur. His writings are filled with moments of transcendence. I …

MLK and Paving the Way Continue Reading

For this one, I jumped into a bit about being a music director @ WMUC & playing NYC jazz clubs.. butt I mostly spoke about the incredible journey of Moshe (Moses). Moshe felt & knew that he wasn’t Egyptian, despite his upbringing and surroundings, he knew he was an Israelite. Moshe had an attachment to Yocheved & her children. He later found out he was her son and they, his siblings. As the saying goes, the truth always comes out in the end. It was then that, “Moshe grew up, and he went out to his brethren and saw their suffering.” Later in the parashah, it says “Hashem saw that he turned aside to see” referring to Moshe’s leaving his own comforts to see the pain and suffering of others and acting on it. This is what made Moshe worthy of being the redeemer …

Rescue The Needy (exodus: shmot) Continue Reading

Carrie Fisher used to say, “take your broken heart, make it into art.” It’s incredible how we are able to turn tragedy into triumph and our own dark moments into light and hope for others. There’s nowhere we see our interconnectedness more than in art. The stories that are the most popular in films and literature play off the primary story (rises, falls). A few examples: Rags to Riches, Riches to Rags, Cinderella (rise then fall then rise), and Oedipus (fall then rise then fall). Most stories play off of this – this is seen in the Torah, too, especially in the story of Yakov and Yosef. When we bump into a friend or a stranger, we never really know if at that moment they are feeling a fall or a rise, & so we each have to be as …

Take Your Broken Heart, Make It Into Art (genesis: vayechi) Continue Reading