What Our Own Prayers Can Say
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Last week we talked about the Amidah, and we talked about the Amidah because it is in some ways the perfect encapsulation of the tension between two instincts when it comes to prayer in Jewish tradition—one instinct in prayer is the spontaneous, the extemporaneous, the speaking purely from the heart; the […]
Tribute to Rabbi Avi, my Mentor and Friend
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I’ve been waiting a long time for this opportunity—the opportunity to pay tribute to a cherished mentor and a dear friend, Rabbi Avi Winokur. The annals of synagogue histories are replete with stories of contentiousness between Senior Rabbis and Rabbis Emeritus. Not here. Not with Rabbi Winokur. No one with his […]
What the Shabbat Prayers May Be Saying
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Many of you have heard me say it a million times by now. “Now is the time of the silent offering of the amidah, the offering of the heart. You’re invited to offer up whatever prayers you have using the words on the page or the words of your heart.” […]
A Bar Mitzvah Student Grapples with the Scapegoat • (Im)purity: Alienation vs Integration
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, This Shabbat, we celebrated the Bar Mitzvah for Elias Zaring. Elias’s parashah, as will be discussed below, was the double portion of achareit-mot/kedoshim, two portions in the midst of the book of Leviticus that include the portion that is read each year on Yom Kippur, involving the ritual of “the […]