Archives

“I’m Begging You”- Vaetchanan Rabbi Bonnie Koppell   The name of this week’s Torah portion is “Vaetchanan.”  The word can be translated as- “I begged, I pleaded, I [...]

Anger is One Letter Short of Danger- a perspective on Matot/Masey Rabbi Bonnie Koppell There is a lot of anger in this week’s Torah portion.  Beginning with verbal commitments made by women which [...]

Shabbat Nachamu Now! Rabbi Bonnie Koppell   Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of Comfort.  It’s an actual date ON the Jewish calendar.  It occurs every summer, in the 7 weeks of comfort and [...]

Korach, The National Week of Conversation, Antisemitism, and Us Rabbi Bonnie Koppell   This week’s parsha is named for Korach, who, in my humble opinion is one of the people in the Torah who [...]

Parashat Shemini: Do You Need to Apologize? Be Sure to Listen First JCC Association | April 8, 2021 1 By Rabbi Bonnie Koppell How hard, or easy, is it for you to say, “I was wrong, I apologize, [...]

A year ago when we celebrated Pesach, I don’t think we realized that we were actually ENTERING Egypt, Mitzrayim, the narrow place, the place of confinement.   A year later, we read the Haggadah [...]

Beetle Bailey and Ki Tissa Rabbi Bonnie Koppell   Here are a couple of interesting numbers: 14, 981 17, 896 23, 746 Any idea what they represent?  These are the number of days that each of [...]

It’s a 3-Day Purim! Rabbi Bonnie Koppell It’s still Purim!  Shushan Purim is a thing every year.  Even in the time of Mordecai and Esther, Purim was celebrated on a different day in Shushan [...]

Esther, Vashti, and Women Leaders Rabbi Bonnie Koppell   We can still talk about Purim, right?  Purim may have officially  ended when we lit candles and entered into Shabbat.  However, in [...]

Alex Trebek and Parshat Bo Rabbi Bonnie Koppell   You may have missed a sad, recent event in the news.  Overshadowed by current events, the death of Alex Trebek, long time host of [...]