Welcome to CyberTorah
Torah Commentary by Rabbi David Booth
CyberTorah is a weekly commentary by Rabbi David Booth, spiritual leader of Congregation Kol Emeth in Palo Alto, California.
Rabbi Booth was educated at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and...Read more...
Different Miracles
Hanukkah is nearly upon us with all its light and beauty. Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, in talking about the Hanukkah story, identifies three types of miracles. First are miracles visible to all. The plagues narrative at Passover is an example of this type. Second are miracles that are hidden. These appear as if there is only the normal function of the world but God has as it were loaded the dice. Purim is an example of this type of...Read more...
Judith and Holofernes
I’d like to tell you the story of Judith, a suppressed story of a powerful faithful woman who saves Israel by decapitating a drunk Babylonian general associated with Hanukkah.. First, though, a word about the book itself. Catholics included this work in their canon, but Jews placed it outside (apocrypha). Nevertheless, Jews appear to have known the story, as its mentioned in a variety of post Talmudic commentaries and...Read more...
Thanksgiving 5786
Exercise: Celebrate Thanksgiving with hamotzi at the beginning of the meal and blessings at the end. For the end, use the traditional grace after meals or this abbreviated one or say the following:
Thank you God, for this meal. We are grateful for this meal and for the land you give us that nourishes and sustains us. May our hosts be blessed in all they do and may the year bring peace and hope....Read more...
Welcoming Guests
Someone I know was looking for an apartment recently. They were surprised to see that many places have cannibalized or eliminated entirely the dining rooms. Kitchen Islands have gotten much bigger, presumably because people are pulling up a stool to the Island and eating there. People these days so rarely have organized meals, let alone entertain, that dining rooms are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.
I find this worrisome. In...Read more...
Patience
Waiting is something that happens in modern society more than we want. On a daily basis we find ourselves waiting for content to download, or waiting on calls for service reps, or waiting for ubers or other delivery services. Waiting creates its own mind state. Knowing / expecting something means that we have part of our attention on that other thing, that future “payoff” yet to occur.
There are broader ways we find ourselves...Read more...
They Are Home!
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם מַתִּיר אֲסוּרִים
Blessed are You, Adonoy our God, Ruler of all, Who releases the imprisoned.
A congregant posted this blessing last night at around 10pm as the first set of hostages were returned home after an ordeal of 738 days. As the Psalmist teaches, “For Your salvation we wait.” We have...Read more...
Joy
Joy, simchah, is different than happiness. Happiness arises from a pleasurable experience or due to biochemistry. It is external rather than internal. Joy, by contrast, arises from wholeness and fulfilment. That means joy can last while happiness is transitory.
The Rabbis talk of the “joy of the commandments (simchah shel mitzvot).” They mean the feeling of joy that arises...Read more...
A Prayer for the New Year
We are drawing close to the first Shabbat of the new Jewish year. This first Shabbat, the Shabbat of Return, is of special significance. It is on this Shabbat that our prayers for the year, our hopes for peace, are especially potent. The heavens feel the effort on our part to find the way, the way back to our truest most sacred selves, the way back to a purpose infused world that calls on us to act, to do, and be God’s partner in healing...Read more...
A Guide to Surviving The HolidayOr – Seven Tips to a Meaning – Filled Days of Awe
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur can be overwhelming and liturgically dense. Worse, since we do it every year, it can easily become routine when it is meant to heal our broken hearts. Here follow seven tips to having a meaningful, spiritual, experience during the Holidays.
1) Make the experience personal. The themes and liturgies intend to show a mirror to your life. What fears do you face this New Year? What...Read more...
Gratitude
Exercise: Set a timer for 10 minutes. Sit in a comfortable place with material for writing (it could be a pen and paper or a laptop. Whatever is easiest for you to express yourself.) Make a list of the blessings in your life. Include material blessings, family and friends, spiritual blessings, and anything else that comes to mind. After the timer goes off, make the following declaration: “Thank You for bringing me to a place with so much...Read more...
Modern Idolatry
Maimonides has a unique definition of idolatry. For him, it means ascribing power to anything other than God. I don’t really know anyone who has an actual idol to which they make offerings in our community. But all of us, myself included, ascribe power to the work of human hands in ways that bind, limit, and hurt.
As one example, I am guilty of the “fomo” response to my phone. My fear of missing out, or having something urgent...Read more...
Spotify 50 for Israel
There is an increasing divide between Israeli culture and Judaism and American Jewish life. The divide has been exacerbated by our distinct responses to October 7th but it existed well before. I see this in literary portrayals of American and Israeli Jews. In books like Exodus it was always brothers, one in Israel one in the US. Today, it is more often cousins.
In the show Srugim the portrayal of American Jews is as a unique but still...Read more...
Exhaustion
It gets harder and harder to read the news, especially the news about Israel. I find myself more stressed than I have since the first few months post October 7th.
I mourn the hostages. The idea that one human could treat another like that is so awful and hard to understand. The lack of empathy worldwide for the intense suffering of these families also breaks my heart.
I so want the suffering in Gaza to end. Yes, Hamas is...Read more...
Comfort You, My People
Exercise: Take a deep breath. Allow yourself to imagine that there is a force of love in the Universe beyond our comprehension. Imagine that force surrounds you, offering you love and comfort, wanting to heal you, every single moment. Become aware of that energy, that love, that comfort. As you breathe, imagine that comforting energy expanding into you, easing those broken places, offering healing to what is wounded. Hold that thought for two...Read more...
Finding Comfort in Prayer
Exercise: Individual Prayer. Take five long breaths to settle. Call to mind some of the areas from which you would like to find comfort. Perhaps a recent loss, perhaps some of the pain and brokenness in the wider world. Imagine a loving energy penetrating those hurt areas, soothing, healing, comforting. Breathe once again and then say Shma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Ehad.
Community Prayer: Come to services in person. As...Read more...
Sources of Comfort
Exercise: Last week I invited you to make a list of painful moments from which you could use comfort. If you haven’t made this list, I invite you to do so now. Set aside fifteen minutes, allowing whatever comes to mind to be expressed. Having completed the list, take 5 long breaths. From that place of calm, add to your list a different question: from what do you derive comfort? Set aside fifteen minutes or so and write what comes to...Read more...
Finding comfort
Exercise: Take a breath. Sit for a minute just breathing. Now start writing. What are some of the losses and hurts that you have experienced in the last year or few months? Can you think of examples with people to whom you are close as well as hurts that come from the larger world? Write them down without judgement; leave that list somewhere easy to find for next week.
Background I had a difficult interaction with someone...Read more...
Walk Humbly
There is internal and external damage caused by Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionist language. While there must be room to criticize Israel, we are naïve if we fail to see that Anti-Zionism all too often becomes Anti-Semitic. By the same token, we cannot allow the virulent attacks against us and Israel to blind us or prevent us from naming and noticing ethical failures in our own community.
For example, this January, when the mayor of Palo...Read more...
Iranian Attacks
As many of you know, I am on sabbatical right now (though I will be at KE this Shabbat). As part of my travels, Carol and I spent about 10 days in Israel visiting friends and family. We experienced so much pain and loss –posters calling the hostages to be returned line the ramp as you head towards passport control at Ben Gurion. My cousins took us to the memorial at the site of the Nova massacre where the victims are named and their stories...Read more...
Your vote is needed today! - Last Day to Vote in the World Zionist Congress Election
Politics
This past Shabbat, I invited a conversation on how best to be helpful to people at this time of unsettled and challenging news. From this, Rabbi Graff and I have learned several things:
First, we should be clear on our values. For example, we believe in the rights of LGBTQ people and want Kol Emeth to remain a home that is welcoming to all. We wish the whole country could also extend such love and welcome as is found in our walls and...Read more...
Sabbatical
I am so grateful to be the Rabbi at Kol Emeth. This community is such a special place for me and for my family. I have felt so supported, both in celebration and in challenges. Shabbat Kiddush at Kol Emeth is one of my favorite places on Earth! Among the gifts of being the Rabbi here has been the opportunity every few years to take some sabbatical time (I receive 5 months sabbatical every 7 years, which I have generally been taking in two...Read more...
A Guide for the Passover Perplexed 5785
As Passover draws near, it is time to get our homes and kitchens ready for this special Holiday. This guide offers an overview of home preparation. For more details, go to this Passover Guide from the Rabbinical Assembly.
Spiritual Meaning
Passover is the origin story of the Jewish people and our commitment to freedom and meaning. Removing leavened products places us in that drama, reminding us that we continue to...Read more...
Purim and the Golden Calf
What does the story of the Golden Calf have in common with the story of Purim? And no, this isn’t a joke. As Rabbi Lehmann taught us this Shabbat there is something serious at the core of Purim. Purim is the day of opposites The Book of Esther is filled with reversals, where terrible genocidal efforts give way to peace and stability. Where outrageous sexism (Vashti’s voice is suppressed) gives way to a world where women wield power...Read more...
The Fast of Esther
It was a dark moment for the Jewish people and all the options looked bad. Haman’s plans were proceeding apace and if nothing was done, darkness would reign. It was in this moment that Esther chose to take on responsibility. She chose to act rather than stand aside, knowing the lives she could save.
Yet before she acted, prior to deciding the course of action that would unravel all of Haman’s plots, Esther and her maidservants...Read more...
Generosity
Exercise: Practice generosity. Identify a cause / charity that you like and make a small daily donation for one week. Be generous with your time with a friend or loved one. Tip intentionally more than you would normally. With each act of generosity, take a breath and say: I offer this to do good and in the service of God.
Background: God, as it were, was generous with the Jewish people this past Shabbat. We had not one, not two, but...Read more...
And a time for joy...
Exercise: Take five long breaths. In between each breath, draw to mind something for which you are grateful. After those five breaths, sit for a minute and say, “I hold with love whatever suffering and loss surrounds me. And now, I give myself permission to feel joy. In that joy, I will be strengthened.” Take five more breaths and then go about your day. Repeat daily, ideally in the afternoon.
Background: People often say God only...Read more...
A Time to Mourn
Yesterday morning at around 10am Israel time, midnight here in California, Hamas released 4 deceased hostages. The remains of Oded Lifshitz, 82, Ariel Bibas 4, Kfir Bibas, an infant (all ages at time of abduction 10/7/23), were returned to Israel. The remains of one other person were also released, purported to be Shiri Bibas but remains unidentified at this hour. Israelis lined the streets as the caskets were brought home, standing in...Read more...
Compassion Fatigue
Compassion fatigue is real. It happens when we are too busy, too upset, kept at a pitch of stress and frustration for too long. The symptoms include shortness of temper, lack of empathy, and a quickness to push people away. When we are in such a state, we revert to a deep and problematic tribalism in which those people who agree with us are friends, and those who disagree with us are enemies.
Moses, whom God chose because he is a...Read more...
Caution: Breathe Before Acting
Exercise: The next time you experience a difficult or frightening choice, take a deep breath. Sit for a moment, a moment of thought, a moment to connect with your deep, true self. Then exhale. Take one more breath for good measure. There is no effort here in thinking about the choice, or trying to overcome your fear. It is much simpler. The exercise is simply to breathe. Just to take two breaths, a brief pause of reconnection with yourself,...Read more...
