Kiriat-Arba Which is Hevron

Kiriat-Arba Which is Hevron
By Rabbi Jacob Herber

I bought this land with water,

salty, briny and clinging

still to a trembling chin.

We haggled over its price

He made an offer, I a counter offer.

I can’t recall if our eyes ever met,

if he saw and knew my pain

but then again I knew only

my own pain,

my own sorrow.

We were adversaries of sorts

positioning, strategizing,

flanking and outflanking.

But in the end we succumbed

to a moment of

distilled rational agreement:

Four hundred shekels of silver.

But did we really know how high the price

would be paid for this spot?

Meet My Hartman RLI Cohort

We've now reached the midpoint of our RLI summer session.  Today 120 Rabbis who were participating in the Hartman Institute's annual Rabbinic Torah Seminar (RTS) departed for home. With the Machon all to our selves for the very first time my RLI colleagues and I decided to take a group photo. Many of you hear me talk about my teachers at The Shalom Hartman Institute and the unique Torah that I learn here. But aside from my friend and colleague, Rabbi David Cohen, you've never had an opportunity to see the other colleagues with whom and from whom I learn Torah.  The other Rabbis in my RlL cohort represent the best and brightest from the Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform and Modern Orthodox streams of Judaism. Here they are . . .

Left to Right (Front Row: Rabbi Yossi Sapirman, Rabbi Yonaton Jaffe, Second Row: Rabbi David Weiss, Rabbi Steven Morgan, Rabbi Lionel Moses, Rabbi Susan Warshaw, Rabbi Amy Small, Rabbi Denis Eger, Rabbi Joshua Aronson, Rabbi David-Seth-Kirshner, Rabbi Shimon Brand, Second Row: Rabbi Michael Feshbach, Rabbi Stewart Vogel, Rabbi Debra Newman Kamin, Rabbi Ken Chazin, Rabbi Sid Helbraun, Rabbi Arnie Gluck, Rabbi Chava Koster, Back Row: Rabbi David Cohen, Rabbi Yonatan Cohen, Rabbi Uri Topolosky, Rabbi Eric Gurvis, Rabbi Laurie Phillips, Rabbi Micah Hyman, Rabbi Carnie Rose, Rosh Kehilla Dina Najman, Not Pictured: Rabbi William Gershon)

A Day of Hartman Torah and Jazz, Israeli Style

Today I spent an incredible day at the Hartman Institute studying Tanakh with Israel Knohl and Hasidut with Biti Roi. We brought the day to a close by attending a phenomenal concert with Jazz artist Daniel Zamir and famed Israeli singer Evyatar Banai, both are representative of an emerging group of Israeli singer/song writers who are fusing contemporary musical forms with Jewish religious themes. Daniel even threw in a d'var Torah between songs. only in Israel!

Eviatar Banai on Guitar and Daniel Zamir on Alto Sax

Alice Walker . . . Part II

My teacher, Rabbi, Dr. Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi, shared a compelling idea with me this morning. She pointed to the great irony that Alice Walker, a respected and admired advocate and champion of women's rights, chose to boycott a nation which has, objectively speaking, one of the best records when it comes to women's rights, especially among the other countries of the Middle East. On this score it seems that Alice is looking at the world through the looking glass.