Rabbi Shmuel Silberman Middle/Upper School Learning Center Specialist   Shmuel Silberman has worked at Maimonides since 1998. He is married to Sara Silberman , who works in the Maimonides Early Childhood Center.   Do you ever suspect that some people “have it” and some don’t? Do you worry that you belong to the “have nots”? Perhaps this thinking has even interfered with your religious life. Other people supposedly have a knack for spirituality, and you wish you did too.   This week 's parsha, Acharei Mot, uproots this paradigm. We read about a procedure on Yom Kippur where two goats are selected. One is offered on the mizbeach, and the other is sent to the wilderness. Which goat goes where is determined by lots.   “And Aharon will cast lots on the two male goats, one lot is for Hashem and one lot is for Azazel ( Vaykira 16:8).”   Whi...

Dr. Josh Levisohn ('85)   Dr. Josh Levisohn (’85) has spent most of the last 28 years in Jewish day school education, including 17 years as Head of School at Berman Hebrew Academy in Greater Washington, D.C. and Farber Hebrew Day School in Southfield, Michigan. Josh returned to the Boston area two years ago, and in July will begin serving as Head of School at Striar Hebrew Academy in Sharon. As someone involved in formal Jewish education for many years, I have often reflected on what sets our heritage apart from contemporary culture. Some differences are immediately apparent: a sense of kedushah , of obligation and personal responsibility, of peoplehood. But there is another aspect of Jewish life that is more subtle and, in its own way, deeply countercultural: the power, the almost tangible reality, of the words that come out of our mouths.   Words do not feel very real. They cannot be seen or touched; they are fleeting, easily misheard or misund...