Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed — Executive Director, FJMC International אֵ֗שׁ תָּמִ֛יד תּוּקַ֥ד עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּ֖חַ לֹ֥א תִכְבֶּֽה׃ A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar, not to go out. (Leviticus 6:6 – Parashat Tzav) There is a fire in every man. Sometimes it burns hot with ambition, anger, desire, grief, urgency, or love. Sometimes it burns low, …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed — Executive Director, FJMC International One of my favorite songs is Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” What makes it so good is that the song refuses to wait for a special occasion. No holiday, no anniversary, no skywriting, no chocolate, no dramatic scene in the rain. It is …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed — Executive Director, FJMC International Two words name this double portion: Vayakhel–Pekudei. They don’t sound dramatic. They are. Vayakhel means and he gathered—not that Moses gathered himself, but that the people gathered. Pekudei means these are the records—the accounting of what was built, what was given, what was done, and what can be proven. Vayakhel matters because …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed — Executive Director, FJMC International In Ki Tisa, the Torah interrupts big leadership with small, stubborn truths: you have worth before you produce, limits before you collapse, and creativity before you burn out. It’s not a parashah about becoming impressive. It’s a parashah about becoming whole. Worth beyond productivity – The …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed — Executive Director, FJMC International Men are often met as uniforms before they are met as human beings. We read the “outside” first: the job title, the competence, the calm voice, the jokes, the silence, the muscle, the dad-energy, the “I’m fine.” We take those signals as the whole story because …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed — Executive Director, FJMC International Men are starving for sanctuary—and many of us don’t know it until we try to rest and can’t. We live as if “safe” is a luxury item: a week off we never take, a calm we can’t hold, a relationship we keep half-armored because we’re afraid …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed — Executive Director, FJMC International Shalom Brothers, Mishpatim – Men Who “Didn’t Know” Parashat Mishpatim is Torah at its most unglamorous—and most urgent. No miracles. No spectacle. Just case law after case law about harm, liability, and repair. It’s as if the Torah is saying: if you want a holy society, …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed — Executive Director, FJMC International One of the best things about being a rabbi is that oftentimes one finds themselves with real people. Rabbis get to be “in the trenches” with people as they face life head on. We hear real stories of joy and despair, triumph and failure, life and …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed — Executive Director, FJMC International Parashat Beshalach gives us a leadership moment that still stings. Israel is trapped: sea in front, Egyptians behind. Panic spreads. People lash out at Moses: “Was it for lack of graves in Egypt that you took us out to die?” In a single breath, slavery is rebranded as …
Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.Ed — Executive Director, FJMC International Parashat Bo is often remembered for spectacle — locusts, darkness, the final terror of the tenth plague. But the deeper drama is quieter and more familiar: a leader who can’t bear the feeling of being wrong or taking accountability. The portion begins with God sending Moses …
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