Rabbi Shaanan Gelman

בס"ד Parshiyot Acharei Mot-Kedoshim - 5780 “Good” Jews and “Bad” Jews As we wait for the opportunity to return safely to our shul, I would like to share with you some rules I hope to promulgate once we return. They are based on the rules set forth by local barons in the year 1755 in the Bavarian community of Sugenheim [1] , on the occasion of the consecration of their new synagogue building. The idea was to make sure the local Jews behaved decorously in synagogue.   Synagogue will be held on Mondays and Thursdays. Failure to attend on those days, in which the Torah was read,   resulted in a fine of one kreuzer. One may not engage in idle talk in the synagogue.   The punishment for doing so was a fine of a quarter pound of wax to be donated to the Jewish treasury (used for candles in the synagogue). There was to be no verbal fighting in the synagogue .   The penalty for this behavior was a whopping 20 kreuzer , half of which

Help! I Need Somebody! Parshiyot Tazria/Metzora – 5780 Rabbi Shaanan Gelman and Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky Private First Class Kristofor Stonesifer was a 28 year old Army Ranger from Missoula, Montana who was killed in 2001 when his Blackhawk crashed in an Afghani dust storm.    18 years later, two men who pretended to be military Veterans were required to write his obituary out by hand- and those of 39 other Montanans who died while serving their country.   It was all part of a sentence imposed by District Judge Greg Pinski of Cascade County against these men for fraudulently portraying themselves as Veterans to receive benefits and preferential treatment. Aside from prison sentences for their actual crime, the judge offered them a chance at parole halfway through their sentences if they met certain conditions. The final condition was that they would be required to wear placards on Memorial Day and Veterans Day outside the Montana Veterans Memorial with a sign that reads: “I am a

Parshat Shemini – 5780 Rabbi Shaanan Gelman Don’t Lose Your Sensitivity For the past month we have been obsessing over food – specifically, Chametz – cleaning up our homes, avoiding foods, mixtures and medications containing chametz, kitniyot and for some gebrokhts . There is a cathartic release which ought to take place the moment Pesach is over – I call it the Chametz binge.   We rush to the store to purchase bread, pizza, donuts, cereals and other necessities and desires as if we have never before encountered such a prized commodity.   The feeling we get is “at last, Pesach is over, no more scrutiny or preoccupation with what we consume. Therefore, I find it somewhat ironic that the first parsha we read this year, immediately after Pesach, just as we are restoring our kitchens and utensils back to normal, is Parshat Shemini, a sidra whose major fixation is Kashrut – what we may put in our mouths and what we must refrain from consuming. In fact, the Sefer HaChinuch enu

Pesach 5780 – Shevii shel Pesach Rabbi Shaanan Gelman  "What the Maidservant Can See" Jessica Meir  is one of those incredibly impressive individuals   a  NASA  astronaut, marine biologist, and physiologist. She was previously Assistant Professor of Anesthesia at  Harvard Medical School ,  Massachusetts General Hospital ,  Boston , following  postdoctoral research  in  comparative physiology  at the  University of British Columbia . [1] [2]  She has studied the diving physiology and behavior of  emperor penguins  in  Antarctica (She matriculated at Brown University, taught at Harvard, studied oceanography and of course in the International Space University) Her Thesis Blood oxygen transport and depletion: The key of consummate divers   She has an expertise in how species fare when coming from one environment and suddenly being thrusted into an entirely different one.   On top of all of her achievements – she’s an astronaut and was a part of the first ever “all