Gustavo Surazski, at The Blogs

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Dec 12, 2017, 12:51 PM

Reborn from the ashes

Chanukah 5778 Hanukkah has a particularity that distinguishes it from the rest of Israel's festivals: no other festival in the Hebrew calendar is celebrated in two different months. The first days of Chanukah are celebrated in the month of Kislev,...

Sep 24, 2017, 9:15 AM

Knocking on Heaven’s door

It is said that on one occasion, in a time of drought, a Rabbi gathered a minyan to pray for rain. After a few minutes, someone whispered in the Rabbi's ear, that a large number of the minyan's participants were...

Jun 30, 2017, 12:25 PM

The Kotel Cartel

You may be reading these lines and asking yourself, "What does the struggle of women who want to put on tefillin at the Western Wall have to do with me? I don’t visit the Western Wall and have no...

Apr 2, 2017, 10:40 PM

Kicking the Habit

I was traveling to the center of the country a few weeks ago when I heard the courteous voice of the Waze navigator say "heavy traffic ahead". I was near Yavneh at the time, and traffic was flowing as usual....

Jan 1, 2017, 2:20 PM

In the course of last year I stopped repeatedly to think what my message would be for the reception party of our new Sefer Torah. It is -- after all -- a very special night for all Kehillat Netzach Israel,...

Sep 8, 2016, 4:34 PM

Single But Not Alone

There's a children's tale which has a lesson for adults about a flea who decided to move and go to live with his family in an elephant's ear. The flea whispered to the elephant: "Master Elephant: we are planning to...

Apr 14, 2016, 4:45 PM

Recently I read a very interesting interview with Rabbi Yaacov Chinitz z"l. In it Rabbi Chinitz says that the book of Genesis, in which we are told about the beginning of the universe, and the book of Exodus, in which...

Aug 26, 2015, 1:46 PM

An allegory of ink drops

A few months ago, while I was writing a Torah scroll, I had a flash of philosophical insight. After writing a few lines, I stopped to clean the quill (the quill in my left hand and the cleaning cloth...

Sep 9, 2014, 9:30 AM

The same but different — Rosh Hashana drasha

A few months ago I visited Buenos Aires, the city of my birth, and went to attend Shabbat services at the Conservative Synagogue in my parents’ neighborhood. I arrived for Shacharit (morning) service and discovered that the Rabbi -- today the...

Jul 24, 2014, 7:54 PM

Hamas and “Cavemen”

Hamas and "Cavemen" Rabbi Gustavo Surazski If you are against the Jews, these lines are not for you. Sartre said that anti-Semitism is a passion unappeased by logic. If you are pro-Palestinian, then these lines can be useful because I presume...

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About Me

Rabbi Gustavo Surazski is the Rabbi at Kehillat Netzach Israel, the Masorti (Conservative) congregation in Ashkelon.