During the Jewish months of Elul and Tishrey, I invite you to take each of four themes, and consider them in your thoughts, conversations or rituals. They represent the three simplest essentials of prayers, with a fourth seasonally-specific one: PLEASE. THANKS. YAY! FORGIVE ME. Yay! This is one of three primary purposes of Jewish prayer. […]
During the Jewish months of Elul and Tishrey, I invite you to take each of four themes, and consider them in your thoughts, conversations or rituals. They represent the three simplest essentials of prayers, with a fourth seasonally-specific one: PLEASE. THANKS. YAY! FORGIVE ME. Thanks: the very first word in the litany of daily Jewish prayer; […]
During the Jewish months of Elul and Tishrey, I invite you to take each of four themes and consider them in your thoughts, conversations or prayers. They represent the three simplest essentials of prayers, with a fourth seasonally specific one: PLEASE. THANKS. YAY! FORGIVE ME. Encountering these hot days of summer on the new moon […]
This mid-summer holiday-that-is-not-a-holy-day, mourning a historical event to which we have difficulty relating, is among the least-observed date on the calendar in liberal Jewish communities. Perhaps the early rabbis felt its difficulties as well, and so added to this fast day commemorating the destruction of the First (586 BCE) and Second Temples (70 CE) in […]
As of June 17, 2015, 360 rabbis have signed the Rabbinic Letter on the Climate Crisis. Among those who initiated this letter are Rabbi Arthur Green, past president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, past head of the Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot, and Rabbi Deborah Waxman, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical […]
It’s graduation season. We read reports of interesting (or boring) speeches by famous (or boring) personages. Closer to home, we celebrate with our kin significant milestones: a child’s graduation to the next school level; a young adult’s completion of a degree. What about the rest of the time? How do we mark the adult phases […]
Think of a Jewish holiday. What comes to mind? Food, decorations, preparations, new clothes, food, special songs, family gatherings, synagogue gatherings, symbols, stories, more food. Hanukkah? Check. (See: latkes, menorahs, dreydls, donuts, Maccabees). Purim? Passover? Each of us can generate a list of at least a few elements pertaining to most Jewish holidays, regardless of […]
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 […]
