What does Chanukkah, the ‘Festival of Lights’ have in common with Tu Bishvat, the ‘New Year for Trees? On the face of it, not a lot… Well, there are some illuminating connections – and I’m not just saying this because the theme of this issue of our shul magazine is ‘ecology’, and as December begins, […]
I didn’t write this sermon – or the one I gave last night, or, the two I will deliver on Yom Kippur; I dictated them onto my computer screen using a programme called Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.0. Although speaking, as the saying goes, is ‘second nature to me’, dictating turns out to be anything but […]
HAFTARAT B’RIESHIT – Isaiah 42:5-43:10 – Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah The connection with Parashat B’reishit is evident in the very first verse (Isaiah 42:5): Thus says the Eternal God, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who made the earth and all that grows in it, who gives breath to its people and […]
THE SUKKAH AND THE MISHKAN THE HAFTARAH FOR THE SECOND DAY OF SUKKOT I KINGS 8:2-21 The Haftarah reading for the second day of Sukkot focuses on the dedication of King Solomon’s Temple during the festival of Sukkot – referred to simply as he-chag, ‘the feast’. But the connection between the Temple and Sukkot is […]
LESSONS IN PRAYER FROM HANNAH HAFTARAH FOR FIRST DAY ROSH HA-SHANAH: I SAMUEL I: – 2:1 The Torah reading for the first day of Rosh Hashanah – Genesis 21 – opens with the birth of Isaac to the previously barren Sarah. Similarly, the corresponding Haftarah relates how Hannah, distressed by her inability to conceive, prayed […]
LESSONS IN PRAYER FROM HANNAH HAFTARAH FOR FIRST DAY ROSH HA-SHANAH: I SAMUEL I: – 2:1 The Torah reading for the first day of Rosh Hashanah – Genesis 21 – opens with the birth of Isaac to the previously barren Sarah. Similarly, the corresponding Haftarah relates how Hannah, distressed by her inability to conceive, prayed […]