Rabbi C. B. Souther

Rabbi C. B. Souther, originally from Portland, OR, devotes herself to stretching the tent of the Jewish community to create space for those on the margins and to build and normalize a culture of vulnerability and compassion. 

Torrah and Kippah

A Time for Building Up

Cantor Elizabeth Sacks
Each year on Sukkot, we read these famous words of Ecclesiastes ( Kohelet): “A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven. …a time for tearing down and a time for building up.” ( Kohelet 3:1,3). To speak of building during a holiday dedicated to erecting a temporary structure seems fitting. And yet, the order the ideas in this verse is at odds with our Sukkot experience. Surely, “a time for building up and a time for tearing down” would align more closely with sequence of the holiday. So why this order? And what exactly are “we tearing down and building up”?
Red outline of heart shape on butcher paper; in the heart, the paper is torn back to reveal the words Love Yourself

How to Turn a Day of Love into Acts of Self-Love

Rabbi C. B. Souther

Perhaps the Hebrew month of Av invites us to find a balance between the deep mourning of Tishah B’Av and the hope of finding love embodied in Tu B’Av a few days later?

Woman sitting on bed with negative pregnancy test stick in her hand

How I Found Holiness in Infertility

Rabbi C. B. Souther

At the end of my first year as a rabbi, as several colleagues had babies or announced they were expecting, my husband and I decided it was time to get crackin’.

Torrah and Kippah

Heeding the Call to Commandment - and to Obligation

Rabbi Elyse Goldstein
Parashat Tzav continues the Levitical listing of sacrificial rituals begun in last week's parashah and discusses how to present the offerings, what the various kinds of offerings are, and the anointing and ordination of the priests. The parashah also explains the Levitical duty to keep a perpetual fire burning on the altar to kindle what we know today as the ner tamid — the eternal light over synagogue arks that reminds us of this continual fire.

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