Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed – Executive Director, FJMC International Parashat Lech Lecha may be one of the richest portions in the Torah for exploring what it means to be a man. We usually approach it as the beginning of Abraham’s journey, the birth of a covenant, and the emergence of the Jewish people. But read through …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed – Executive Director, FJMC International “Noah was a righteous man; he was wholehearted in his generation.” — Genesis 6:9 Seriously, what does that mean anymore? I ask because this has been a strange time to be thinking about men. The president of the United States was found liable by a civil jury …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed – Executive Director, FJMC International Before there were expectations about what a man should be, there was Adam. Not the Adam of Hebrew-school pictures or later theology. Not the patriarch, provider, alpha male, or “real man.” Before any of those categories existed, Genesis gives us ha-adam: the human being. Pay attention, …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed – Executive Director, FJMC International We arrive at the end of Moses’ life, at the edge of the land, at the conclusion of the long journey. And then we roll the Torah back. Not because the words have changed. Because we have. There is something deeply human in that gesture. What if, …
There is deep wisdom for men in Sukkot and its ritual objects. Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed – Executive Director, FJMC International See full text in Jewish Journal
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed – Executive Director, FJMC International Anger has a bad reputation in both religious and secular life. Religion often warns that anger can lead us toward sin. Contemporary culture frequently treats it as something to manage, suppress, or “let go.” We praise people for staying calm and worry about those who lose their temper. …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed – Executive Director, FJMC International There is a particular temptation that comes with leadership, especially for men who have spent years building organizations, communities, careers, or reputations. We begin by wanting to serve something larger than ourselves. Eventually, almost without noticing, we can start believing that the thing we serve cannot survive without …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed – Executive Director, FJMC International One of the easiest things in life is to know what kind of person you want to be. One of the hardest is to become that person. Most of us have little trouble naming our values. We believe in honesty, loyalty, generosity, fairness and compassion. We want to …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed – Executive Director, FJMC International Family life is messy at worst and meaningful at best. Parent-child relationships are not as easy to navigate as one might think. Just because parent and child might share a genetics or an emotional bond, that does not mean they both inherently connect with, or understand, one …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed – Executive Director, FJMC International This weeks Torah reading, Shoftim (trans: Judges), opens with one of the Torah’s most famous commands: “Justice, justice shall you pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20). But what follows is more interesting than the slogan. Moses does not simply tell Israel to find good people and put them in charge. He builds a system …
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