Sefirat ha-Omer is the mitzvah that frames the season we are in right now, between Pesach and Shavuot. While the action of the mitzvah is fairly straightforward – we count each day and week from the day after Pesach until…
To Number Our Days
Parashat Emor 5777 Meir Sendor As Lag BaOmer approaches an electricity builds up here in the Galil. This day signifies the end of the plague that decimated the students of Rabbi Akiva as related in the Gemara Yevamot 62b. Throughout…
The Great Blue and White Hope
Parashat Acharei Mot Kedoshim – After the Death of Holy Ones – 5777 Meir Sendor צִיּוֹן, הֲלֹא תִשְׁאֲלִי לִשְׁלוֹם אֲסִירַיִךְ, דּוֹרְשֵׁי שְׁלוֹמֵךְ וְהֵם יֶתֶר עֲדָרָיִךְ מִיָּם וּמִזְרָח וּמִצָּפוֹן וְתֵימָן שְׁלוֹם רָחוֹק וְקָרוֹב שְׂאִי מִכֹּל עֲבָרָיִךְ, וּשְׁלוֹם אֲסִיר תַּאֲוָה, נוֹתֵן דְּמָעָיו…
Continuing Education
Parashat Tazria-Metzora 5777 Meir Sendor This week we had a bunch of bureaucratic errands to get done. Israeli government agencies have earned a certain Kafka-esque reputation, but frankly, in our experience, especially in Tzfat, the people we have met are…
Fine China
Parashat Shemini 5777 Meir Sendor On Isru Chag we visited the Kotel with my father-in-law, who would be returning to the States shortly. As often happens when you’re out and about in Israel, we ran into friends of ours and…
Kamah Ma’alot Tovot
Hol HaMoed Pesach 5777 Meir Sendor Dedicated to the memory of those murdered in the terrorist attack in Ma’alot in May 1974 During Hol HaMoed Israelis hit the roads on family trips, and we followed suit with a trip to the northern…
Free to be Free
Parashat Tzav, Shabbat ha-Gadol 5777 Meir Sendor The other day after Maariv at the Beit Midrash Ha-Ari z”l in Tzfat, I arranged with the Rav of the Kehillah to sell our hametz. While I was at it, I asked the…
Something Old, Something New
Parashat Vayikra 5777 Meir Sendor Our travels a few weeks back through the lower Galil took us past a large built-up hill with palm trees on top that caught our attention, so we returned last week for a look. It’s…
Group Dynamics
Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei 5777 Meir Sendor A young guest at our Shabbat table recently asked whether I still go to minyan regularly during the week, seeing as I’m no longer serving as a community Rabbi. It was not an innocent question.…
The Big Picture
Parashat Ki Tissa 5777 Meir Sendor We were warned that Purim is kind of a Tzfat specialty, and the partying can get pretty interesting. At the Purim Seudah of friends in the courtyard of their home, the fact that it…
