This past Sunday evening, eight OrH members waded into the choppy waters of Israeli-Palestinian-conflict conversation. To properly extend the metaphor, perhaps I should say instead: we started by dipping in our toes, but quickly dove in, knowing that no one would drown. We accomplished this using tools first introduced to us by previous student rabbis. […]
The counting of the Omer is both a grounding experience and a transcendent one. The mitzvah, the commandment, is simply to count — count the days between the second seder until the evening of Shavuot, for 49 days in a row. Yet it marks a mythical and mystical journey from redemption to revelation, liberation from […]
As many recent surveys and studies note, Passover is the holiday most celebrated and observed by Jews in North America. And while some of you may justifiably contend that this honour belongs to the Days of Awe in the fall, the difference falls to the central event, namely the seder. The seder is the premier […]
Purim has passed, and even those of us who celebrated together and listened to the story may have missed this verse in Chapter 4. It goes by quickly. Mordechai admonishes Esther, reluctant at first to step into the King’s chamber uninvited to plead for her people: “Do not imagine that you, of all the Jews, […]
If it’s “Fat Tuesday,” it must be almost-Purim! When you stop to think, these two fests seem to be like the proverbial twin-separated-at-birth as featured in Mad Magazine. Is Mardi Gras the Catholic Purim? Masks! Costumes! Inebriation! Wild Dancing! And this is a religious feast? Truly, both dates are all about Turning the World Upside […]
This past Sunday, Rabbi Liz spoke at the First Unitarian Congregation’s Sunday morning service while Reverend John Marsh was out of town. Her sermon’s title, “What’s God Got To Do With It?”, made everybody nervous. She managed to put people at ease — just as she would do when she talks about God at Or […]
During our most recent Shabbat morning Torah service, we had a little liturgical announcement: we declared the coming new month of Shvat. It’s hard to identify a more universally relevant topic than the environment. Along with the weekly dedication of Shabbat we sing in our Kiddush honouring Creation, and the prominence of this theme in […]
Were we a community that compiles, prints or announces names to be acknowledged as Mourner’s Kaddish is recited, last Shabbat I would have offered the name Malek Merabet, and those of the four men killed inside the kosher supermarket in Paris — Yoav Hattab, Phillipe Braham, Yohan Cohen and Francois-Michel Saada — and also police […]
IT’S … TODAY! A Bear, a Pig and some Monkees walked into a … Nope, that won’t work. Try this: “What day is it?” asked Pooh. “It’s today,” squeaked Piglet. “My favourite day,” said Pooh. ~ ~ ~ With the secular new year behind us, along with the reading of the whole book of Genesis, […]
As a youngster, I loved Hebrew school, Young Judea, our community summer camp, Camp B’nai Brith, and Friday night services. I went to services on my own, or with friends. I had even asked to attend afternoon religious school! My zayde, my mother’s father, and a pious Jew, was quietly proud that I persisted in […]
