Rabbi Steven Abraham

Shabbat Tzav 5775Since I was a child I was fascinated with the prophet Elijah. As a child I remember staring at the Cup of Elijah sitting on our Seder table looking for any of the wine to disappear, proof the prophet had stopped by our home. In addition to being present on Passover Elijah is also present at a host of other Jewish ritual events, most notably Brit Milah, the Passover Seder, and the conclusion of Shabbat to name but a few. On Passover we open the door for Elijah for whom we believe … [Read more...]

It has been said that Jews have a 6th sense, thesense of memory.  There is not doubt that our most common denominator as Jews is our bond to certain watershed events in our people’s past. A bond that travels through our religious identity, for it makes no difference whether someone was born Jewish or converted in; our ancestors are their ancestors, our stories and their stories. We all have certain memories, photographs in our own minds, or smells take us back, if only for a moment to a … [Read more...]

July 24, 2014 – Jerusalem, Israel  This morning we woke up and headed north to Ramat Yishai to pay our respects to the family of Lt. Bar Rahav z"l.   We Spoke to the family, paying our respects…thanking them for their son’s service to his country.  I will admit that for a group of rabbis, attending a shiva house is a pretty standard experience and yet this was so far from the ordinary.  There are no words to describe the experience, except say that we were all heart broken, yet knew … [Read more...]

July 23, 2014 – Jerusalem, Israel We had planned to wake up Wednesday morning and head to Tel Aviv to meet with United States Ambassador to Israel.  Unfortunately, his boss came to town, Secretary of State John Kerry and so the Ambassador had to cancel our meeting.  What was set up instead was quite possibly even more interesting for our group.  We started the morning off by driving to Kehillat Ya’ar Ramot in Jerusalem.  At the Kehilla we heard from Ms. Talia Levanon, Director of the Israel … [Read more...]

July 22, 2014 – Jerusalem, Israel What a day… This morning began like most, davening shacharit then onto breakfast.  The beauty of this specific morning was that we prayed at Congregation Moreshet Yisrael, which is on the campus of the Fuchsberg Center for Conservative Judaism.  The Fuchsberg Center is a place I know well, having spent a year of my life living within its walls as a staff member on NATIV.  It was wonderful to be back, to see old friends and to reminisce.  Yet while everyone spoke … [Read more...]

July 21, 2014 – Jerusalem, Israel I was filled with emotions as I boarded my flight to Israel last night.  Excited to see friends and colleagues, but also anxious to see and hear for myself about the situation on the ground.  I was immediately excited by the shear number of people aboard my flight…fear was not holding people back.   Upon landing in Israel I began to notice one slight difference from all my other visits, the country appeared to be quieter.  Almost as if the country is tuned in to … [Read more...]

Shabbat Pinchas 5774             I once had a teacher that looked at his students and proclaimed that we were free to agree with his views or, should we so choose, to disagree.  What was not allowed was to say “I don’t care.”  To agree or to disagree was to forge an opinion, to say I don’t care, to be apathetic is to stand on the sidelines.  Perhaps Elie Wiesel said it best:  “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s … [Read more...]