Standing at the Shore Together
Dear Friends, It was fun for our community to get profiled this week in the Jewish Exponent! I hope you’ll check it out and share. Meanwhile, I wanted to share with you the D’var Torah I offered this past Shabbat on the eve of long-time member Evan Schwartz Chrismer becoming Bar Mitzvah: I often joke about […]
The Power of Community in Challenging Moments
I had hoped this week to simply share with you the D’var Torah I delivered this past Friday night to welcome our 61 new member households who joined over the past year, on the experience of entering a new community, and on the importance, in Jewish tradition, of welcoming and togetherness. I do share that […]
How Prayer May Bring Change – Not How You Might Think
I’m writing to share the remarks I delivered at this past week’s Friday night Shabbat service, which you are always encouraged to attend — a peaceful conclusion to the week and initiation of Shabbat, celebrated through song, community, reflection, and prayer, and then, of course, food: I’ve shared a lot about my own personal prayer […]
Aheinu — Holding Space for One Another
One English word used today to describe the work of a rabbi is “pastoral.” Pastoral is a word whose origins derive from the nomadic, shepherding origins of our people, and today it refers to a form of accompaniment — to, as Rabbi Dayle Friedman writes, offering “a spiritual presence to people in need, pain, or […]
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.