What Do Rainbows Have To Do With This?
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar My four year old daughter Lila loves rainbows. The theme of her fourth birthday—I didn’t know birthdays have to have themes, but according to my wife they do—was rainbows. Her favorite dress is her rainbow dress, her favorite shoes are her rainbow shoes—one day I brought her home “rainbow sparkle gummies,” […]
Ongoing Response to War in Israel and Gaza
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar Dear Friends, What a horrendous week and a half it has been in Israel, Gaza, and around the world. We mourn deeply the loss of all innocent life—from the more than 1,400 Israelis that Hamas terrorists killed on that devastating day of October 7, to the six-year-old muslim boy fatally stabbed […]
Response To Tragedy In Israel on October 7
By Rabbi Nathan Kamesar SINGULAR MOMENT IN ISRAEL As we now know, what took place this past Shabbat and Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah holiday in Israel was not the standard cross-border skirmish we have grown all too accustomed to, where Hamas militants fire rockets from the Gaza strip, Israel retaliates in order to deter future aggression, […]
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 […]