Rabbi Linda Joseph

Rabbi Linda Joseph (she/her) is a member of the CCAR Worship and Practice Committee. She is the rabbi of an adult-only congregation, Bet Aviv in Columbia, MD and teaches Introduction for Judaism online for the Union for Reform Judaism. Over the years, she has officiated at hundreds of Bet Mitzvah for those who are thirteen, those who are eighty-three, and adults who have never had the opportunity to be Bet Mitzvah.

Rosh HaShanah

What’s Different about High Holidays Challah?

Rabbi Linda Joseph

In Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah taught, “If there is no bread, there is no Torah; and if there is no Torah, there is no bread.” I love these words. They echo in my mind when I partake in two of my favorite almost daily activities, the study of Torah and the baking bread. On the holidays, these two passions intersect, as they have for generations of Jews, when I shape challah. The traditional shapes for challot (plural) can be Torah study on our very festival tables.

Man using a yad to read from an unfurled Torah scroll on a table as members look on

Ten Minutes of Torah

Celebrating Layers of Meaning on Simchat Torah

Rabbi Linda Joseph

September 26, 2018

On Simchat Torah, I watch as the Torah scroll is carefully unfurled onto a series of long connected tables – the text so much more than designs scattered on parchment.

Haftarah

Preaching on the Haftarah and Reassessing Tishah B’Av

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Lewis M. Barth

June 13, 2013

Parashat Mas’ei is the concluding reading from the biblical Book of Numbers and is filled with a wealth of historical detail. This year, the Shabbat on which we read Mas’ei comes at the beginning of month of Av. If this had been any other month in the Hebrew calendar, we