Related Blog Posts on Rabbi Geoffrey W. Dennis and Spirituality

Trauma is the response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope, causes feelings of helplessness, and diminishes their sense of self and their ability to feel the full range of emotions and experiences. Many of us in the Jewish community have experienced some sort of trauma or grief due to October 7th, the ongoing conflict, and the global rise in antisemitism.

A couple of weekends ago, I did something totally beyond my comfort zone. Along with 20 other Jewish activists, I attended a contemplative, mostly silent, meditation retreat through the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.

During the month of Elul, we are invited to listen deeply. Each weekday morning, we are invited to hear the cry of the shofar, marking the beginning of our spiritual journey toward the High Holy Days.

The opening chapters of Genesis introduce and establish one of the most enduring elements of Jewish religion, spirituality, and culture: the power of food.

I became bat mitzvah on October 27, 2018. It was both one of the best and worst days of my life. At the same time I was on the bima at my home congregation of Temple Emanuel in Greensboro, NC, a gunman at another community in Pittsburgh walked into the Tree of Life Synagogue and killed 11 Jewish people.

My Hebrew name is Emunah, and I have autistic spectrum disorder (ASD).

Last year, I spent Seollal, or Korean New Year, with my family in Busan. The symbolism, the spirituality, and the elaborate order of charye remind me of Jewish holidays and rituals.

As part of the URJ Reflection Project, a new set of offerings and experiences for the High Holidays in a time of social distance, we’ve also developed three short essays that allow you to go deeper into the essence of Jewish wisdom that grounds these rituals. 

Even though the Emancipation Proclamation declared all enslaved people free on January 1, 1863, it was not fully enforced until two and a half years later.

The enormous question for me, then, has always been: Is God watching? When I began to understand computers, I realized that, yes, one thing could follow billions of people if those people were nothing more than data points on a revolving planet with polar icecaps.