From the Rabbi

Words of the Spirit, by Rabbi Liz Bolton, Or Haneshamah's rabbi and spiritual leader

Rosh Hodesh, literally the head of the month, refers the new moon. Jewish months most often begin in the middle of our Gregorian months, giving rise to those confusing calendars, with the Gregorian date in one corner and the contrasting Jewish calendar date in another, which begins on the previous evening.

This Jewish year, as is often the case, Rosh Hodesh Nisan, is followed by the Shabbat when we begin reading from a new book of...Read more...

Each November the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College hosts a three-day gathering for prospective students. This past fall’s Institute began on November 9, the day after the American presidential election, which had been preceded by a long season of acrimonious campaigning, and a deteriorating civil discourse. In this article about the event, several biblical figures and narrative threads are referenced that have been on my mind...Read more...

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, and balance, my capacity to withstand others’ complaints, the ways in which I can pivot in place, they are all finely honed and less...Read more...

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.

We celebrate hope over despair, of moving through teshuvah towards wholeness.

We celebrate the year’s...Read more...

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 of community, continuity, tradition and innovation. Parents, teachers, health care professionals,...Read more...