The Arc of the Holiday Calendar
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar We’re coming down the final stretch of the fall holiday season here at Society Hill synagogue and in Jewish communities around the world. Sometimes, I offer myself a chutzpadik thought experiment: if I were designing the Jewish calendar, the Jewish year cycle from scratch would I do it this way Would […]
What a Sukkah Teaches Us
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, This past week we’ve rung in Sukkot with a series of celebrations: Our intergenerational Sukkah building, which you can glimpse on this time lapse video on Wednesday, September 27 Our musical TGIShabbat/TGISukkot on Friday, September 29 A Shabbat/Sukkot morning Torah discussion with Kiddush lunch in the Sukkah on Saturday, September 30 […]
Making Ourselves Known: Unburdening As A Bridge To The Divine
Yom Kippur, Society Hill Synagogue, 5784 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar There is one particular story from Torah that is sticking with me this Yom Kippur, and it’s a story that, while perhaps known to many, does not necessarily have an enduring role in the Jewish ritual calendar and so I want to take this opportunity […]
Loving Your Neighbor As Yourself: A Journey Into The Soul
Kol Nidre, Society Hill Synagogue, 5784 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Rabbi Akiva has been called the greatest rabbi of them all, the most esteemed of the ancient rabbis. So when he identifies what he considers to be כְּלַל גָּדוֹל בַּתּוֹרָה, the great principle in all of Torah, you sit up and listen. The principle, the […]
The Enduring Sacredness Of The Synagogue
Rosh Hashanah 5784 By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I have to say, I never imagined myself here. I never imagined myself as a pulpit rabbi. Many of you know that I had a brief foray as an attorney before this, and even when I got to rabbinical school, I didn’t imagine serving in a synagogue context. […]