Vacation Notice

Rabbi Kosak is on vacation this week. Oasis Songs will return next week. In the meantime, please don't forget to use the link below to see Torah commentary from the Conservative Yeshivah and the movement.

Old Fights – Parshat Vayigash 5781

While we’re all physically apart from each other, it’s easy to forget that we all have to live with each other in every sense of space. Portlanders share one city. Oregonians share one state. Humankind shares just one planet. Vayigash means “and he drew near,” and the parshah reminds us to draw near to each other and meet each other in the here and now.

The Voices that were Silenced

As I type these words, I am looking out the basement window and across the ravine, to where my neighbor’s deck is battened down for the winter. This is a seasonal view, obscured through most of the year by dense foliage. The vertical rails of their deck fence seem suddenly barren, and I am reminded of a Wallace Steven’s poem entitled “The Plain Sense of Things.”

Resources in Reserve – Parshat Miketz 5781

Parshat Miketz, which is read around Hanukkah, a time of year when we have more darkness than light, is about reserving for the future. Besides emergency supplies, we should savor and reserve the light of the Hanukkah candles in our memories. Store your moments of light, of gratitude, because you never know when you’ll need to tap into them.

Doing Enough – Parshat Vayeshev 5781

Could I have done more? It’s one of those questions you ask yourself in moments of tragedy. It’s difficult to know which piece of advice, which kind word, which heroic gesture will make a difference, or if any of them will. But in reality each little contribution, no matter how big or small, can make a difference.