Kol Ramah

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Chayyai Sarah [Genesis 23:1-25:18] opens with a summary of the years of Sarah’s life: These were the lives of Sarah, a hundred years and twenty years and seven years, the years of the lives of Sarah. It is interesting that in Hebrew “life” is a plural noun, whereas in English it is singular. Perhaps related to th...

Parsha Talk, with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. If it seems that we have just read parashat va-yera [Genesis 18-22] it is because, in a sense, we have. Chapters 21 and 22 were the Torah readings on the first and second day of Rosh Hashanah. In our conversation this week, we started at the end, with aqedat yitzchaq, the Binding of Isaac, and stayed there. Aside from an...

Parsha Talk, with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Lekh L’kha [Genesis 12-17], following on the heels of B’reishit and Noach these past two weeks, is the third in a sequence of winnowing or sifting. Taken together, they illustrate the rabbinic category of work known as bo’rer, which forbids the separation of something good from something bad on Shabbat. The firs...

Pasha Talk: with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Noach [Genesis 6:9-11:32] concerns itself primarily with the Flood in which God destroyed nearly the entire world he had so carefully created in the opening chapters of Geneis. Noah is described as a righteous person in his generation, which led the rabbis to speculate how he would have fared in a different gener...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat B’reshit [Genesis 1:1–6:8] begins the annual reading of the Torah once again. We spend some time discussing the phenomenon of reading and rereading the Torah, and how we might approach it with new eyes, with freshness, year after year. We discuss Creation, as it appears in chapter 1 and in chapter 2, we discuss A...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. It is a special edition of Parashah Talk this week since there is no regular weekly Torah Reading because of Chol Hamo’ed Sukkot; the intermediate days of Sukkot have a special Torah Reading. On Shabbat we read from Exodus 33:12-34:26, from Parashat Ki Tissa. We read the same selection on Chol Hamo’ed Pesach. In addition...

Parsha Talk - with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chseler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Ha’azinu [Deuteronomy 32:1-52] presented us with unusual difficulties, of a technological nature. Because of the way Yom Kippur fell out, we recorded during my school day, and space in my school is at a premium. Eliot askes for mechilah [forgiveness] in case I come in and out, I was reminded periodically that m...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Va-yelekh [Deuteronomy 31:1–30] is the shortest parashah in terms of verses, but in terms of words and letters it is second to V-zot Ha-b’rakhah, which is read on Simhat Torah. When Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur falls on Shabbat, it is paired with Nitzavim [read last week] 29:9–30:30, which has forty verses. Our di...

Parsha Talk, with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Nitzavim [Deut. 29:9-30:20] is the last parashah of 5782, and the third from the end of the weekly readings [V-zot Ha-b’rakhah (Deut. 33:1-34:12), the last parashah, is read on the morning of Simchat Torah (this year, Tuesday, October 18, 2022)]. Nitzavim begins with the declaration that “You stand this day, all...

Parsha Talk, with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Ki Tavo [Deuteronomy 26:1–29:8] features some texts which appear in Mishnah Sotah 7, where there is a discussion about which texts may be recited in any language, meaning a language one understands, and which must be recited in Hebrew, presumably because the ritual itself is what is important, and not so much on...

Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky with Parsha Talk, . This week’s parashah, Ki Tetze [Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19], is the most mitzvah dense, with 74 commandments in 110 verses. A number of these commandments are problematic [in no particular order, the call to destroy Amalek (25:17-19), the stubborn and rebellious son (21:18-21), marriage with a woman captured in war (20:10-...

Parsha Talk with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. Parashat Shoftim [Deuteronomy 16:18–21:9] is the fifth parashah in the Book of Deuteronomy. It has a mitzvah density of about 40%, according to Eliot, who found this statistic in the Koren Torah with Rashi. Mitzvah density is the ration of mitzvot [commandments] to the number of p’suqim [verses]. So there are a lot of mit...

Parsha Talk: with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Jeremy Kalmanofsky and Barry Chsler. Parashat Re’eh [Deuteronomy 11:26–16:17] is the beginning of the legislative core of Deuteronomy, which will extend over the next few weeks until the beginning of Parashat Ki Tavo [read this year on September 17]. One might look at it as the foundation of Israelite religious life, with laws calling for the centralization...

Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky discuss this week's parsha. Parashat Eqev [Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25], the third parashah of the book, has its share of quotables. The second paragraph of the Shema, recited by the faithful twice each day, is found here [Deuteronomy 11:13–21], as is the verse at the heart of the second blessing of Birkat Ha-mazon [Grace After Meals] [8:10], a...

Amy Erlanger interviews people from Ramah Berkshires and Ramah Palmer (Ramah New England) before the opening ceremony. Following that, we have the ceremony. Is it possible that Amy knows some of these Palmer people? Find out....

Parsha Talk- with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. This morning I (BC) got up from shivah [the initial 7-day mourning period after a funeral] for my brother, Bruce, z”l [zikhrono livrakhah, may his memory be for a blessing]. What better way to rejoin the world than to sit on Zoom with colleagues and friends, Rabbis Eliot Malomet and Jeremy Kalmanofsky and discuss the par...

Adat HaBogrim puts on the musical, Matilda.

The kids of Shorashim talk to and play games with Amy and Benji of Kol Ramah.

Amy and Benji talk to the Gan kids. Listen to them talk, sing, and make animal sounds.

Join this fast-paced discussion with our very own Shorashim and hear about their brand-new musical and more.

Benji, Amy and Charlotte discuss musicals, acting and more in this radio chat show.

The kids of Shorashim put on an original play about exams, revenge, and friendship.

Parsha Talk Devarim with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky. We begin a new book of the Torah this week, Sefer Devarim, the Book of Deuteronomy, which always comes the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av, the 9th of Av. This year Shabbat is actually the 9th of Av, but we postpone the observance of the fast and the mourning rituals that accompany it until Sunday. A new book of the Tor...

The 4 teams are: Yellow Cheerios, Green Apple Jacks, Blue Frosted Flakes, and the winning team, Orange Reese's Puffs. These are their songs and cheers.

The kids of Chaverim talk to Kol Ramah about all kinds of things, including which movie is better: Zombies or Encanto?