A Time for Wailing, A Time for Dancing
These verses from Ecclesiastes come to me in this moment that feels like both “a time for wailing and a time for dancing.”
A time for dancing because, after 15 months of war, hostages will be reunited with their families, rockets — at least between Israel and Hamas — will stop firing, families will return to their hometowns. Peace, albeit limited, tentative, and fragile, will reign.
Israel and Community, and the California Fires
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I’d like to share a reflection flowing out of a monthly course I’m teaching here at Society Hill Synagogue on Zionism: Understanding The Yearnings For A Jewish State. For the moment, I don’t want to get hung up on defining the word “Zionism;” people often mean different things when they invoke […]
What exactly is a miracle?
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I’m writing to wish you all a healthy and happy Hanukkah season, this Festival of Lights, and to share with you some reflections that I offered this past Shabbat on the question: what is a nes — Hebrew for miracle? What do we mean when we invoke the existence of miracles […]
It’s Just Us
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar We need your help. When I first applied to rabbinical school back in 2013, operating as I was from something of the periphery of the Jewish community, I did not imagine that, post-rabbinical school, I would be the rabbi of a synagogue. The conventional wisdom at the time (and in some […]
The Holiness in the Pang of Regret
by Rabbi Nathan Kamesar I am very excited that this week we are welcoming Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum to our community as Scholar-in-Residence. To me, she is a teacher, role model, and friend. Her arrival comes on the heels of her being named this week to the BBC’s 100 Women: the BBC’s list of 100 inspiring […]