by Rabbi Shlomo Segal
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are that of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the Union for Traditional Judaism, unless otherwise indicated.
Rabbi Shlomo Segal’s d’var Torah for Shabbat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim appears on the Jewish Week website here.
The ritual of preparing the incense appears in Achrei Mot/Kedoshim, “And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord” [Leviticus 16:13]. Although the absence of the Holy Temple renders the procedural incense rite inoperative in our present era, the Midrash Tanchuma adds a new and more pertinent dimension to it. The Midrash relates that the Hebrew word for incense, ketoret, is imagined as an acronym (KeToReT): the letter kuf represents kedusha (holiness); tet is for tahara (purity); resh is for rachamim (mercy); and taf is for tikva (hope). …
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Rabbi Shlomo Segal is a member of the UTJ’s Panel of Halakhic Inquiry, which issues religious responses on behalf of the organization on contemporary issues, and vice president of Morashah, the rabbinic arm of UTJ.
Rabbi Segal is also a member of the International Rabbinic Fellowship (IRF) and the New York Board of Rabbis.
In fall 2013, after a decade of pulpit experience, Rabbi Segal founded Kehilat Moshe, a liberal Orthodox congregation in the Sheepshead Bay area of Brooklyn, NY. While still a new congregation, Kehilat Moshe has emerged as a diverse, multi-generational caring and intellectually stimulating community rooted in both pluralism and halakhah.
Rabbi Segal delivers a weekly commentary which you can find at kehilatmoshe.org and on YouTube. He was also interviewed on National Public Radio on the subject of “Swinging Chicken Ritual Divides Orthodox Jews”.