Rabbi Koppell’s Writings
I’ve been thinking a lot about the upcoming holiday of Purim, a moment in our calendar characterized by much joy and not a small amount of silliness. Drinking is encouraged, cookies and costumes are an integral part of the celebration, lots of noise and things turned topsy turvy. I’m not…
Check out these coins! Although it is a coin from the State of Israel, the notion of it goes back to this week’s Torah reading. As the parsha, Ki Tissa, begins, God instructs Moses to take a census of the Israelites. Well, really just the men above age 20. Essentially…
Gold and silver and brass. Blue and purple and scarlet. Plus precious stones and fine oil and fabrics and skins. As this week’s Torah portion, Terumah, begins, God presents a long shopping list to Moses. In the chapters that follow, there are pages and pages of construction details. The Israelites…
Did you read where Dr. Ruth Westheimer has a new job? At the age of 95, she was just appointed as New York’s first “loneliness ambassador.” I’m not sure exactly what the job entails or how she is going to go about fulfilling her responsibilities, but the governor said that,…
As the holiday of Chanukkah draws to a close, I am struck by the fact that this is the only Jewish holiday that celebrates a military victory. The victory of the few against the many when it had seemed improbable, the struggle for the right to be different, to live…
A commentary on Parshat Vayeitze published in the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, Nov. 24, 2023 In Genesis 27:13-14 God speaks to the patriarch Jacob in a dream, “This land upon which you are lying, I give it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust…
THANK YOU TO MY NON-JEWISH MILITARY COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote these powerful words- “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Many in the Jewish community are feeling very alone right now, abandoned by…
And so it begins again. This week, Parshat Bereshit, we have the opportunity to open our Torah scroll to the very beginning and take it from the top. The creation of the world. The almost immediate expulsion from paradise. The flood, Abraham and Sarah, enslavement and freedom, wandering, entering the…
Violating the Law of Land Warfare Rabbi Bonnie Koppell CH (COL) USAR- Retired War has been part of human history for as long as we know. In the Torah, , by Genesis 14 Avram is doing battle with 4 local kings, and his nephew Lot is captured. Avram is forced…
Israel at War Simchat Torah 2023 Rabbi Bonnie Koppell It was just last night, in the before time, that Alan Zeichick and I were chatting before our joyous Shabbat and Simchat Torah celebration. He commented that Simchat Torah is his favorite holiday because it is “pure joy.” I loved and…