Tisha B’Av: Mourning, Memory and Meaning
22/07/2015 09:59:34 PM
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 Jerusalem a cumulative list of disasters that have befallen the Jewish people, such...Read more...
To Heal The Earth
18/06/2015 09:57:53 PM
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 College and of Jewish Reconstructionist Communities, our...Read more...
Zil Gmor!*
04/06/2015 09:57:15 PM
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 of the seasons of learning? We encourage life-long learning, but aren’t familiar with the experience...Read more...
The Lost Holiday
13/05/2015 09:56:23 PM
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 our individual experiences with them.
We are...Read more...
Israel and Iyyar
22/04/2015 09:55:38 PM
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. Some of you may have participated in those structured conversations, using...Read more...
UP for the Count
08/04/2015 09:55:06 PM
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 enslavement to our connections as a people. It is as if, having left the narrow places — the meaning behind the...Read more...
From Purim to Pesah II
25/03/2015 09:54:44 PM
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 home-based ritual practised by Jews of all stages, ages, and places on the Jewish spectrum. It’s our peoples’ annual...Read more...
From Purim to Pesah I
11/03/2015 09:54:07 PM
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, will escape with your life by being in the king’s palace.”
We know the story has a happy “ending” — that is, we...Read more...
Mardi Purim
18/02/2015 09:53:19 PM
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 Down when religious men are not only permitted, but encouraged, to dress as...Read more...
What’s God Got To Do With It?
09/02/2015 09:52:43 PM
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 Haneshamah — with personal reflections, some old-fashioned teaching, and a little exercise. Here are a few excerpts from the...Read more...
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