Shards of Light, Sparks of Joy
This past Shabbat, we celebrated our last day of Hebrew School for the year. “Celebration” is relative, because our Hebrew School students bring such life and vibrancy and insight to our Sanctuary each week, so it’s always hard to see them go; I can only pray they feel a reciprocal level of richness from the […]
HaMakom Yenahem: Seeking Comfort, Seeking Peace
I woke up this morning to my wife sharing the news with me about the shooting and killing of two Israeli Embassy aides, Sarah Milgrim, 26, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in downtown Washington DC last night. Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring with which to propose to Milgrim on their […]
The Secret History of Kabbalat Shabbat
I cannot imagine the experience of Edan Alexander, the 21-year-old hostage released this week from Hamas captivity, and his family and friends, upon their reunion. Barukh atah adonai matir asurim, a traditional Jewish blessing says: Blessed is the One through whose spirit captives are freed. Still, our hearts lament the ongoing captivity, for 587 days […]
Honoring Memory, Embracing Purpose
I write this on Yom Ha’atzma’ut, Israel’s Independence Day, which immediately follows Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day. Israel’s commemoration of these two days is strikingly different from their equivalents here in the United States: for starters, by connecting them on consecutive days, Israel is signaling the extent to which, over the 77 years of its […]
Inner Life. Outer Life. Jewish Life.
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 acts of resistance — […]