WUPJ Library

by Rabbi Ferenc Raj, PhD, Rabbi Emeritus, Congregation Beth El , Berkeley, CA, USA, and Founding Rabbi, Congregation Bet Orim , Budapest, Hungary This week’s parasha, Naso , the longest weekly portion in the entire Torah, consists of 176 verses. One of its chapters, chapter 7, has the distinction of being the longest chapter in […]

by Rabbi Gary M. Bretton-Granatoor, Vice President, World Union for Progressive Judaism So we find ourselves back in the Exodus narrative, having lived through a long commercial break for the Priesthood, known as Leviticus. Parashat Naso is the second portion in the book of Numbers, which seems to follow seamlessly the events of the Book […]

by Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, Senior Rabbi, Emanuel Synagogue , Sydney, Australia Parashat Naso is the lengthiest of Torah portions in our reading cycle, discussing the sotah (teaching the notion of mind over matter), the nazir (teaching the tension between the physical and spiritual) and chanukat habayit (a passage also read at the festival of Chanukah […]

Recent Issues By: Rabbi Cory Weiss, Rabbi of Temple Har Zion , Thornhill, Ontario, Canada Make Yourself Count! A few weeks ago, our family received notice to go online and fill out the Canadian census form. We moved to Canada from the United States just under ten years ago, and so this census is the […]

Recent Issues By: Paul Golomb, Rabbi of Vassar Temple, Poughkeepsie, New York, World Union’s North American Board member, Editor-in-Chief of the Reform Jewish Quarterly (CCAR Journal). Kol Yisrael ‘Aravim Zeh l’Zeh . [All of the people Israel are dependent upon each other]. When I was a younger rabbi, this assertion served as the slogan for […]

Recent Issues By Rabbi Joel Oseran, Vice President, International Development, World Union for Progressive Judaism, Jerusalem Have you ever stopped to ask yourself the question – why do we call the 4th Book of the Torah by two different names? In Hebrew we call it Bamidbar (in the Wilderness/Desert) whereas in English we refer to […]

by Rabbi Howard Cooper, Director of Spiritual Development, Finchley Reform Synagogue, London, UK “On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from Egypt, God spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying : Take a census of the whole Israelite community, listing the names, person by person…” […]

by Rabbi Stanley M. Davids, Immediate past-president of ARZA , and Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Emanu-El of Greater Atlanta, US. Counting should be a very straightforward kind of thing. You send out an e-vite to a child’s party, and each of the recipients can not only indicate with a key stroke whether s/he will be attending, […]

by Rabbi Pauline Bebe, rabbi of Communaute Juive Liberale , Paris, France Le désert – le désert est-ce la solitude de ces moments d’entre-deux, entre Pessah et shavouoth ? The desert: the desert, is it the solitude of those moments in between: between Passover and Shavuot ? Un peu comme un montagnard qui marche d’un pic […]

by Rabbi Fred Morgan, Senior Rabbi, Temple Beth Israel , Melbourne, Australia For someone coming from Britain, Australia seems like an empty land, a wilderness. The great bulk of the Australian population lives within 100 kilometers of the coast, and another 100 kilometers inland  in many places brings you to the edge of the outback, […]

Recent Issues By: Rabbi Edwin Goldberg, Senior Rabbi of Temple Sholom of Chicago , Illinois, USA We are Defined by Our Choices “A seeker after truth came to a sage for guidance. ‘Tell me please, wise one, how did you become holy?’ ‘Two words.’ ‘And what are they, please?’ ‘Right choices.’ ‘And how does one […]

Recent Issues It would have been oh so easy to write this D’var Torah as the Rabbi of a Synagogue celebrating its 50th anniversary year, if as often occurs, the portions of B’har and B’chukotai were combined on one Shabbat; B’har containing the biblical account of the Jubilee Year! Alas, my lot is B’chukotai complete […]