Our guest this week is Rabbi Efrem Goldberg, the senior rabbi of the Boca Raton Synagogue in Florida. Rabbi Goldberg serves as Co-Chair of the Orthodox Rabbinical Board's Va'ad Ha'Kashrus, as Director of the Rabbinical Council of America's South Florida Regional Beis Din for Conversion, and as Posek of the Boca Raton Mikvah. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, Hillel Day School, Torah Academy of Boca Raton, and Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. Additionally, Rabbi Goldberg is involved in a number of national organizations and projects. He serves as Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of America and as Chairman of the Orthodox Union Legacy Group, and is a member of the AIPAC National Council. In 2011, Rabbi Goldberg was invited to deliver the invocation to the U.S. House of Representatives. Rabbi Goldberg graduated from Yeshiva University with a B.A. in psychology and received semicha from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, Yeshiva University, and completed the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management Advanced Executive Program.
In this Week's Torah Portion- Parashat Re'eh (Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17) – Moses continues speaking to the people of Israel right before he passes away. Moses asks them to recite certain blessings and curses on Mount Grizzim and Mount Ebal after they enter Israel. He demands that they destroy all remnants of idolatry from the Promised Land. He asks them to choose a city which will host the Holy Temple, and they are forbidden from offering sacrifices anywhere else. The Parasha also discusses false prophets, kashrut, the sabbatical year, and charity. Our discussion focuses on the idea that mortality can lead us to despair or to be inspired and on how Moses’ famous words from the parasha (“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse…”) urge us to make our choice today.
If you would like to learn some more about Parashat Re’eh, take a look at our discussion with Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson.
