Inner Life. Outer Life. Jewish Life.
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Today is Yom HaShoah, whose formal name is Yom Hazikaron LaShoah Velag’vurah — Remembrance Day of the Holocaust and Heroism. It’s a heartbreaking day each year it comes up, commemorating the Holocaust, the state-sponsored, systematic murder of six million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators, as well as commemorating the […]
Hazzan Jessi: Connecting the Unconnectable
by Hazzan Jessi Roemer Earlier this week, my friend texted me a question: “Do you think of Tanakh (the canon of Torah, Prophets, and Writings) as Jewish mythology? Akin to Greek or Norse mythology, but with more staying power?” “Hmm,” I answered, “in terms of the stories, yes. But Tanakh is not only theology and […]
Vayikra’s Divine Mystery
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar As we get ready for our Pesah S’darim, our Passover Seders, I’m writing to share the D’var Torah I delivered last week on the range of different ways that Torah conceives of God. In the meantime, I wish you a Hag Pesah Same’ah: May you experience the reminder that we have […]
“Your People Are My People”
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I’m writing to share the D’var Torah I delivered this past Friday night when we hosted our Scholar-in-Residence, Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, who offered incredible teachings Friday and Saturday. I gave our scholar-in-residence this Shabbat carte blanche to select a topic to teach about, a right she has earned both by […]
Debbie Jaffe
Debbie (she/her) has been the B’nei Mitzvah tutor at Society Hill Synagogue since 2017, but she has been teaching kids how to read Torah since she was 15 years old. She has mentored hundreds of students for their B’nei Mitzvah services in Philadelphia, New York, and Los Angeles since 2000. Debbie received her B.A. from […]