Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah December 11, 2025 14 Kislev 5786 Parashat Vayeshev Last Saturday, about 20 mezuzahs were torn off the doorposts of apartments in a government-subsidized apartment building for seniors in Toronto. It’s being treated as a hate crime, but no arrests have been made.   Now, this didn’t happen in 1930’s German. This didn’t happen in 1940’s Iraq. This happened in a sophisticated North American city with approximately 200,000 Jews. It is both shocki

Join us for the next  Greater Summit Jewish Community Connections Lunch and Learn Wednesday, December 10th at 11am at COS-SJCC Get the Scoop on Israel's Elections Process and Why It's so Controversial. A Talk by Professor Gilbert Kahn, Political Science at Kean University This is a free event but you must register Click here or on the flier below to register

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah December 4, 2025 14 Kislev 5786 Parashat Vayishlach The great comedian George Carlin used to do a bit about asking a man, “How are ya?” and the man replied, “Fine and dandy.” Carlin talked about the fact that he was often fine, but not dandy at the same time. Or, he was sometimes dandy, but not fine. He could only remember one time in his life that he was both fine and dandy (it was in August 1978—in case you were wondering!). In this week’s

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah November 27, 2025 7 Kislev 5786 Parashat Vayetzei In October 1863 (that’s eight score and two years ago!), right in the middle of the US Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation designating the final Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving. It’s really remarkable. As President Lincoln himself noted, despite the ongoing war, there were still blessings for which people should give thanks. He went on to say: “I do, there

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah November 20, 2025 29 Cheshvan 5786 Parashat Toldot Maya Angelou famously taught us, “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”  The problem is that many people try very hard to hide who they really are. We see two instances of it in this week’s Torah portion.  First, in Genesis 26:7, Isaac told Rebecca to pretend that she was his sister instead of his wife.  It’s a little trick he learned from his father Abraham who as

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah November 13, 2025 22 Cheshvan 5786 Parashat Chayei Sara As soon as it’s November, I can’t help but start thinking about Thanksgiving. I have always loved Thanksgiving. I’m sure that food has played a large part in my love affair with Thanksgiving—after all, I do love the food of Thanksgiving. But there’s more to it than that. Thanksgiving is the one American holiday on which Jews are the same as every other American. Many other so-called Ame

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah November 6, 2025 15 Cheshvan 5786 Parashat Vayera We may not be able to agree as to whether we should be happy or sad about the election results from Tuesday. However, we can ALL agree on one thing—we are all grateful that the political ads will finally stop (at least for a while!). As we all know, political campaigns go negative because the negative ads seem to work. Anger motivates people to vote more than any other emotion. Campaigns try

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah October 30, 2025 8 Cheshvan 5786 Parashat Lech Lecha Warren Buffet is well known for being a contrarian investor. His famous advice is, “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” Needless to say, he’s done pretty well with that strategy of not just following the crowd. In this week’s Torah portion, we are introduced to another well-known contrarian—our patriarch Abraham. When everyone else was worshiping idols, h

Thursday, November 13th - Joint Men's Club / Women's Group Scotch & Siddur  Directly after Minyan on zoom or in person at the home of Pam Appel and Mark Beatty, 45 Evergreen Road in Summit

Friday, November 14 th  – PJ Tot Shabbat 5:15pm, Tot Shabbat and refreshments immediately following Wear your PJs, bring your pillow, blanket and favorite stuffed animal

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah October 23, 2025 3 Cheshvan 5786 Parashat Noach So, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas seems to be holding. It’s not exactly peace, but it’s not war either. It reminds me of the end of the Great Flood about which we read in this week’s Torah portion. After 150 days on the Ark, God took note of Noah and all the creatures with him. And then the Torah tells us that “the waters subsided (Gen. 8:1).” The earth was still covered in water, ever

Next Grotta Event! Artificial Intelligence! Understanding it! Using it! Staying safe! Wednesday, November 5 at 11 a.m. at Congregation Beth Hatikvah Click here to register.

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah October 16, 2025 24 Tishri 5786 Bereshit I downloaded a new book to my iPad about two weeks ago, but I haven’t read a single word yet. I have two pretty good explanations for why that is. First of all, I have been greatly distracted by the events in Israel leading up to the ceasefire and the release of the last living hostages. Second, there have been a few Jewish holidays recently that have kept me pretty busy. But the truth is that I have

Fill-The-Truck!  Sun, Oct 26th, 930am-12pmBooksmiles Collection event! Bring your books and periodicals in any condition and help COS Fill the Truck for Booksmiles  -- which has just put its 4 MILLIONTH book into the hands of underprivileged children. Check out www.booksmiles.org to learn more.

Information Session Via Zoom with Mayan Chin Jacobi of Magnolia Israel Tours October 26th at 12pm On the Shul Zoom Zoom Link here , Meeting ID: 908 273 8130, Password: NJ07901