Rabbi Yaakov Green (’98) Head of School   Rabbi Yaakov Green ('98) is the proud father of four Maimonides students and one recent alumna. He is beginning his fifth year as Maimo's Head of School. Ever since I watched Rabbi Dov Huff teach a new song to our eighth graders at our weekly kumsitz several years ago, there is a phrase in this week’s parsha that I have loved: כִּי קָרוֹב אֵלֶיךָ הַדָּבָר מְאֹד, בְּפִיךָ וּבִלְבָבְךָ לַעֲשֹׂתו ֹ For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it. Moshe is telling the Jewish people that Torah, meaning, growth, and a relationship with G-d are not impossibly distant. לא בשמים היא , they are not somewhere up in heaven. ולא מעבר לים היא , they are not waiting for us on the other side of the sea. They are, in fact, already close. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l pointed out that we often have exactly the opposite instinct. We imagine that real spirituality must be found somewhere else, someplace more exotic, more...

Rabbi Shimmy Trencher Executive Director of Community Engagement   Rabbi Shimmy Trencher serves as Executive Director of Community Engagement, overseeing admissions, recruitment, marketing, communications, community programming, and alumni affairs. Prior to joining Maimonides, Rabbi Trencher was a high school principal and dean of students. He is married to Stacey (Kepnes) Trencher (‘93).   Last night, I had the privilege of attending the Maimonides Senior Recognition Night. It has become a Maimonides tradition that on the Thursday night prior to graduation, the twelfth graders and their families gather for a program that highlights each individual graduate prior to the formal commencement ceremonies. Each graduate was acknowledged for their unique contributions to the grade and to the school, and had an opportunity to share how Maimonides School has impacted them. One senior began his speech by quoting the Rambam ( Hilchot Deot 6:1): דֶרֶךְ בְּרִיָּתוֹ שֶׁל אָדָם לִהְיוֹת נִמ...

Jacob Pinnolis Chiel Educator-in-Residence Jacob Pinnolis joined Maimonides in 2020 as Chiel Educator-in-Residence, named by Lisa Rosenbaum and Ron Fisher in honor of Judy and Jonathan Chiel. This position allows Jacob to serve in a high-level consultative leadership role that leverages his considerable expertise in systematic implementation of reflective teaching practice, with a focus on student-centered learning and mastery. He also served as Interim CEO during the 2021-22 academic year while we conducted a nationwide search for a new Head of School.   I want to focus on a single word in this week’s parsha and explore its meaning and relevance for what happens at Maimonides School. The word is ויסעו, vayisu . It and various forms of the root נסע appear in this parsha nineteen times. Its core meaning is similar to “to pull up tent pegs.” It shades naturally into meaning more broadly “to decamp” or “to set out.” Given that the narrative of Bechukotai concerns the movement of B’...

Rebbetzin Adina Morris ('95)   Rebbetzin Adina Morris ('95) is the Rabbinical Council of America’s Rebbetzins’ Circle Director of Rebbetzin Leadership and Engagement. As the director of this inaugural women’s division, she focuses on strengthening rebbetzins across North America. She also works part-time for Lee Hecht Harrison as a career coach and consultant; has a small private executive, career, dating, and life transition coaching practice; and is the rebbetzin of Young Israel of Southfield in Michigan. She has a blog called Insight Out, and is editing for publication her book on the women of Tanach and influential women leaders.   What a roller coaster of two months! Eight weeks ago we relived the ten plagues, the redemption from Mitzrayim, and the splitting of the sea on Pesach. The last seven weeks we counted Sefirat HaOmer, culminating with our recommitment to the Torah on Shavuot last week. Among the many mitzvot we were busy with over the last two months, counti...

Stephanie Samuels Middle School Limudei Kodesh Teacher   In addition to teaching Chumash and Navi, Stephanie Samuels serves as Sixth Grade Dean and is Director of the Maimonides Fellows program. She is the proud mother of a Maimo student and three alumni.   Parshat Bamidbar opens with the organization of Bnei Yisrael around the Mishkan — each shevet with its own place, banner, and identity. At first glance, the parsha seems primarily concerned with the technical: census numbers, camp formations, and travel protocols. However, shivim panim laTorah — there are seventy facets to Torah — and Chazal discern something deeper in the structure of Bnei Yisrael’ s encampment. Bamidbar Rabbah comments on the phrase “ ish al diglo be’otot le’veit avotam ” — “each with his standard, under the banners of their fathers’ house” ( Bamidbar 2:2). The Midrash explains that the arrangement of the tribes around the Mishkan was not a new organizational system at all. Rather, it reflecte...

Rabbi Dr. Marc Gopin (‘75)   Rabbi Dr. Marc Gopin (‘75) has held the James Laue Chair at the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University since 2003.   There is a striking moral architecture embedded in Behar–Bechukotai , one that has increasingly spoken to me not just as an abstract system of law, but as a guide to how I try—and often struggle—to live. What appears at first as agricultural law or covenantal warning reveals, upon reflection, a carefully constructed vision of a just and sustainable society—one that anticipates human vulnerability, restrains excess, and builds pathways for repair. It is, in many ways, a model not only for society, but for the inner life of a person trying to act with integrity. The Sabbatical year, Shemitah , is perhaps the most disarming command. Every seventh year, the land must rest. No planting, no harvesting, no pursuit of productivity in the usual sense. What grows is shared. From a narrow economic perspective, ...

Rabbi Dani Rockoff ('95)   Rabbi Dani Rockoff ('95) is the Head of School at Westchester Day School in Mamaroneck, NY. He previously served as K-12 Judaic Studies Principal and School Rabbi of the Denver Academy of Torah; Dean of the Matmidim Judaic Studies Program at Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy in Overland Park, KS; and congregational rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel Abraham and Voliner in Overland Park.   This week’s parsha, Emor , has stayed with me since it was my own Bar Mitzvah parsha, and each year I find myself returning to it with a slightly different perspective.   I remember being puzzled by the narrative at the end of the parsha —the unnamed man whose father was an Egyptian and whose mother was an Israelite. It raises questions about identity and what it means to belong. As a thirteen-year-old, I tried to make sense of it the best way I...