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Rabbi Phil's Almost Weekly Message

Rabbi Cohen's Almost Weekly Email

10/24/2023 10:15:14 PM

Oct24

09/27/2023 10:14:24 PM

Sep27

Rabbi Phil Cohen

The Zen of Sukkah

(I wrote this column some time ago, as will be clear from the opening paragraph. But its message about Sukkot still fits.)

I was caught in a traffic jam today in the rain and wondered if the situation bore
 any relationship to Sukkot.

The relationship may be a large stretch of the imagination, but let me see if I worked out anything that makes any kind of sense.

What is a traffic jam?...Read more...

09/13/2023 10:13:12 PM

Sep13

Rabbi Phil Cohen

The high holy days are nearly upon us, and I’d like to speak about an aspect of these days that has lately been on my mind.

I begin with a legend told to so many of us back in our religious school days at the time of the school year when Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur lay just around the corner.

When the high holy days come, Mrs. Levine told us kids, the Lord God sits on His throne with a huge ledger set out...Read more...

08/24/2023 10:11:46 PM

Aug24

Rabbi Phil Cohen

If we read the Torah with a discriminating eye, we might find ourselves bothered by some of what we read. Now to be clear, much of what the Torah teaches contains much great moral and spiritual power.
But as to what might bother us: It seems that in the Torah God is a trifle too willing to punish evildoers rather excessively. Such as, for example, sending a flood to destroy the world save for one family on a boat loaded down with pairs of...Read more...

08/10/2023 10:10:12 PM

Aug10

Rabbi Phil Cohen

I thought that to celebrate my sixth anniversary here at TBE (six weeks), I’d write a few words.

Wherever the four winds have taken me, it has been my practice to send out a regular message to my congregants. I have always called it my “Almost Weekly,” since I intend to communicate in writing regularly, but realize that it’s not something I can necessarily accomplish every week. But almost every week, I should be able, so...Read more...

Thu, November 30 2023 17 Kislev 5784