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 […]
Our community doesn’t necessarily think of itself as having had multiple rabbis, as in the plural. In fact, ORH has played host to a deep roster of graduates of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, mostly during their student years. Founded as a havurah, or friendship circle, ORH in its early years welcomed ritual leadership support from members […]
The following remarks were delivered at the Annual General Meeting on May 26, 2019. Engaging in the life of a synagogue community is a radical act, and a spiritual act. It represents the essence of defining spirituality, and of challenging the predictable social order. How is offering of yourself a spiritual act? Simple. It is, […]
Dear Or Haneshamah community, It was a day that was already laden, soggy even, with unease. Many of us have been observing the flood conditions in the Ottawa-Gatineau region that had risen to threatening levels during the Passover week. Some of turned our attention to our basements, or to our neighbours and our neighbourhoods; some […]
Scarcity and abundance. Need vs. desire. These aren’t the themes we readily associated with Passover, never mind with Purim. Liberation! Triumph over our (Eternal) Enemies! Freedom from Slavery! And of course: Food! Passover represents the apex of the Jewish calendar’s – and the Jewish people’s – focus on the food-festival connection. Fundamentally, the holiday is […]
“Judaism has little interest in using thought control. Prior to the emancipation of the Jews, bans were sometimes used when the coherence of a Jewish community, living in gentile and often hostile surroundings, was at stake. Yielding to unity then was crucial to the survival of the Jewish people. The rabbis, however, were very reluctant […]
(Sung to the tune of “Found a Peanut”) Tishrey, Heshvan, Found a peanut Kislev, Tevet, found a peanut Shvat, Adar, found a pea- Nisan, Iyar, nut la-ast night Sivan, Tamuz, l a-ast night I Av, Elul, found a pea-nut our calendar is sung*. found a peanut la-ast night *Or nuts! (or legumes!) Seriously, the Jewish […]
“Dear Members of Or Haneshamah, As many of you are aware, there was a massive accident yesterday morning in Ottawa involving an OC Transpo bus and a Via Rail train.” That was the opening of my very first message to you as a community, early in September 2013. What a shattering afternoon it was this […]
“Israel” has long been regarded as the third-rail of Jewish communal discourse. The quotation marks here signify the fluid, elusive nature of that word. It signals questions: what exactly are we referencing when we say “Israel?” Is it the current country? How we define its boundaries? The idea of a Jewish nation? A Jewish nation-state? […]
It’s not the darkest time. Not yet. This year the lights of Hanukkah wane, along with the dimming sunlight, as we approach the winter solstice. Often the secular and religious calendars provide an overlap between the Jewish and Christian holidays that fall on the 25th – of Kislev and December respectively. These two festivals, just […]
