Reconstructionist Judaism has been described by one of my great rabbinical school teachers, Dr. Arthur Green, as religious humanism. He also teaches that the first and most important “commandment” of the Hebrew Bible is captured in Genesis 1:27 with the phrase tselem elohim – the image of God. These are two essential teachings for me. […]
In the best of times, and when I am at my best, I live in the moment. This doesn’t mean I do not look ahead. I make plans, I anticipate needs, and I look forward to special events. But when I’m living in the moment, all sorts of things become clear. My sense of smell, […]
By the time you read these words, voting will have concluded in the American presidential election. For many, this will bring relief merely for concluding a massively divisive and even bizarre campaign. Amongst factual as well as partisan reporting of the candidates, polling, alliances and breaches, there have been frequent references to the deleterious psychological […]
What do you get for a world that has everything? In truth, we don’t trumpet the age of the world; we celebrate its newness, actually, its renewal, this and each Jewish new year. We celebrate our joy over the newborn year, not its news. We celebrate the politics of meaning, not the meanness of politics. […]
Soon, the crescent moon of Tishrei will appear above our heads. We are drawn to peer into space, as if towards the distant stars, to discern what we may encounter in the months ahead of us in the year 5777. The year will start with the appearance of the slimmest horn of light. Yet it […]
The season of teshuvah offers an opportunity to look back, look at ourselves, and look to the future, intently and intensely. It is also a time of celebration of community and continuity, and of tradition coupled with innovation. There are many of us who spend our days thinking, in one way or another, about these interrelated issues […]
In the early 1980s, when the AIDS crisis had already begun to cut its wide swath of devastation in the United States, the epidemic was just emerging in Canada. After my dearest high school friend died with AIDS in 1983, I vowed to do something to honour his memory. A few years later, while living […]
In January 2013, a group of American rabbis, including the president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, met with Vice President Joe Biden as members of the national Lifeline to Healing Campaign organized by PICO – People Improving Communities through Organizing. Fast forward to this moment, these weeks of the summer of 2016. Images and stories […]
The devar torah and discussion took place on the Shabbat during Sukkot, the Festival of Booths. I was a rabbinical student, and my primary “davening” community was at Minyan Dorshei Derekh, one of three such prayer groups that meet at Germantown Jewish Centre in Philadelphia. Along with the Jewish Renewal congregation that met nearby, the […]
Last month, many of us attended or hosted Passover seders that featured a song towards the end that sounds suspiciously like one of those summer camp memory games, with a numbers twist, like: “When I went on my camping trip, I brought three lamps, two sleeping bags, and one tent….. etc.”. with each successive person […]
