Three Steps Forward
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I’d like to share the D’var Torah (teaching of Torah) I delivered this past Friday night, on the eve of celebrating a young person in our community, Isaac Hohns, becoming Bar Mitzvah: People like to talk about the experience of playing Jewish geography — seeing whether someone Jewish whom you’ve just […]
Three Secrets
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I want to share with you the D’var Torah I delivered this past Friday night at our Open House Shabbat, when we welcomed more than 250 people into our synagogue for the return of our weekly Friday night TGIShabbat musical services: Tonight, I have three secrets I want to share with […]
A Call To Love With All Our Hearts
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar This past Shabbat, we read the Torah portion in which the Sh’ma is found — perhaps the central liturgical moment in all of Jewish life. The Sh’ma is found in Sefer D’varim, the Book of Deuteronomy, during a speech in which Moses is addressing the Israelite people at the end of their journey together. The People […]
Tishah B’Av: Commemorating Exile, Embracing Wholeness
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Tishah B’Av is nearly upon us. Tishah B’Av, the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, is the date on which the destructions of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem are commemorated. It is estimated that the first was destroyed in 587 BCE; the second in 70 CE. […]
War, Peace, and Sacrifice
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I write on Day 657 of the war that started on October 7, 2023, a war that feels more interminable and heartbreaking by the day. At this point, nearly 75% of Israelis, “including 60% of people who voted for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, back an agreement with Hamas that would […]