We have many choices in our American society. Just take a moment and consider how many options you have for breakfast cereal or frozen pizzas! Having options to choose from is nice when it comes to breakfast, but when it comes to obeying God and following him we must understand that we really do not have a choice: God expects us to obey him and his leading whether we feel like obeying him or not!

In the spring of 2002, I went to an art exhibit that featured a grouping of pictures painted by a good friend who was beginning the process of leaving the safety of a career as a commercial artist and pursuing an art form that was uniquely his own. The collection was entitled quite simply, "Monsters". I was not prepared for the transition in his work. My friend's commercial work had always been clean, crisp, professional and uncluttered. His new art was dark, convoluted, layered and primitive, obscuring warm colors with dark shadows.

One of the most challenging portions to pronounce, b'Haalot'cha (b'HA-a'lo-t'CHA) is almost always translated, "In your kindling" [the lights of the Temple Menorah]. The portion is directed to Aharon, whose mission as Kohen Gadol (High Priest) is to light the light that shines through the darkness and illuminates the Holy Place that God has established on earth in the midst of the nations.

by Rabbi Russ Resnik 

Jewish tradition assigns a special Torah reading for each of the haggim or pilgrim-festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot, and the reading for Shavuot is perhaps the most notable: the Ten Commandments.

What is the connection between the Ten Commandments and Shavuot? Seven weeks after our ancestors departed from Egypt at the first Passover, they arrived at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah and their assignment to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Shavuot commemorates this event for all generations. One way to keep it alive is for everyone, even children and infants, to attend synagogue to hear the reading of the Ten Commandments from the Torah scroll. Thus, we relive the historic event when all Israel gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai to receive the Torah and commit themselves to observe it.

"We like to continue to believe what we have been accustomed to accept as true, and the resentment aroused when doubt is cast upon any of our assumptions leads us to seek every manner of excuse for clinging to them.  The result is that most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do."    James Harvey Robinson, American historian (1863-1936)

This quote succinctly sums up the struggle of the Children of Israel throughout the book of Bamidbar [Numbers]—their misconception that all that there was and is now is all that will be, and their struggle to step forward in faith.  As we see all around the world, society is becoming disgruntled over the price of fuel.  Not one of us wants to pay more for the substance, but neither does anyone wish to run completely out of petrol on the highway or byway.  But perhaps the solution is quite contrary to what we might expect or desire.  Indeed, what we might need is to come to the verge of running out completely in order to spur on a true change and a new hope.  As the Children of Israel needed to enter the vast desert to run out of all of their adverse ways, so the future of transportation and our own lives is very much dependent on one thing for change:  an empty tank.

In the final sedra of Vayikra (Leviticus), which begins on the 34th day of counting the Omer before Shavout, we are looking at the concluding thoughts of this book of Torah devoted to the pursuit of sanctity. The word of Torah itself leads one to God's holy way, as we read, "These are the mitzvot [commandments] which the Lord gave to Moses for the people of Israel at Mount Sinai" (Lev. 27:24). This closing verse corresponds with the beginning of Vayikra that says, "The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting: he said, 'Speak to the people of Israel'" (Lev. 1:1-2). The book is framed to show that the origins of its teachings are from the God of heaven and earth.

Infinity.  Philosophers, mathematicians, physicists and theologians have tried for centuries to wrap their minds around this idea.  Symbolically represented as  ∞, the definition of infinity is "unboundedness", or something without end.  In Hebrew, it is called Ain Sof and has been the topic of many rabbinical discourses - all in reference to the Holy One.  What is it about infinity, or ain sof, that captivates us? And how is it that mathematicians are able to pull this symbol into equations of relevance?  How is it they and countless others harness this concept, dance with it, and return with something tangible? Whether we realize it or not, the Torah addresses this exact dance through Bris Milah, the Yoveil (Jubilee year), Shemini Atzeret, Chanukah, and the counting of the Omer into Shavuot.  Through these special times, we experience what humans have been driving towards since the dawn of time: a taste of the Divine as we slip into the intangible, sublime realm of infinity and back.