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If, as the Talmud tells us, the blasts of the shofar are meant to remind us of crying, (Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 33A – specifically of Sisera’s mother – but that is another subject!), then...
When I started a new chapter in my life as a freshman at Indiana University (Go Hoosiers!), I met people left and right. I suggested to a group of new friends one Friday evening that we go to...
As Jews, we approach every autumn with the understanding that a new year is starting and that the High Holy Days are up and coming. In between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, we observe the Days of...
Turn the Torah scroll. Turn back to Genesis for the Rosh Hashana reading.As the Torah scroll is rolled, one person is on one side pulling forward - back to the beginning. One person is on the other...
Shabbat Shuvah is the Sabbath between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. The name is derived from the opening word of the haftarah reading that urges us: Shuvah Yisrael ad Adonai Elohecha, “Return, O...
by Marc Rosenstein(Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah)These are the festivals of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their proper time. -Leviticus...
by Marc Rosenstein(Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah)He will take us back in love; He will cover up our iniquities, You will hurl all our sins into the depths of the...
A deep spiritual life is hard to find. While opportunities abound for spiritual connections (yoga, meditation, retreats and the like), for most of us it doesn’t come easy. The noise, unfinished to...
When God gave us the Torah at Sinai -- so says our tradition -- we responded with na'aseh v'nishmah, "We will do and we will hear." Sounds kind of backwards, doesn't it? How can we follow...
This week, I watched the stars fall.
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I do believe that some of the time, God whispers to us in the same way that God spoke to Jonah. As I reflect upon all of these incidents, I realize that by paying attention to these divine whispers...
I have always found the notion of “belief” rather troublesome.
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As Jewish leaders, we are looked to as teachers, guides, mentors, advisers, counselors, and confidantes. People trust us; with their questions, with their challenges, with their significant...
The individual relationships we share are the backbone of creating a kehillah kedosha—a sacred community.
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We asked clergy across North America which music, books, art, movies and more help them get into a reflective state of mind as they gear up for the High Holidays. Here’s what Rabbi Joseph Black...
We asked clergy across North America which music, books, art, movies and more help them get into a reflective state of mind as they gear up for the High Holidays. Here’s what Rabbi Marci N. Bellows...
We asked clergy across North America which music, books, art, movies and more help them get into a reflective state of mind as they gear up for the High Holidays. Here’s what Rabbi Andy Bachman...
We asked clergy across North America which music, books, art, movies and more help them get into a reflective state of mind as they gear up for the High Holidays. Here’s what Rabbi Paul Kipnes from...
When we learn about repentance and forgiveness from a Jewish perspective, we often focus on what we assume are the distinctions between Jewish and Christian views, and conclude, that as Jews, we...
We asked clergy across North America which music, books, art, movies and more help them get into a reflective state of mind as they gear up for the High Holidays. Here’s what Rabbi Shoshanah...
We asked clergy across North America which music, books, art, movies and more help them get into a reflective state of mind as they gear up for the High Holidays. Here’s what Cantor Joshua Breitzer...
We asked clergy across North America which music, books, art, movies and more help them get into a reflective state of mind as they gear up for the High Holidays. Here’s what Cantor David Berger...
When I think of the word “hope,” one sentence comes to mind: Hope is a dangerous thing.
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We asked clergy across North America which music, books, art, movies and more help them get into a reflective state of mind as they gear up for the High Holidays. Here’s what Cantor Mary Rebecca...
Most rabbis spend the summer months preparing for the High Holydays. This summer, my High Holiday preparation included travelling to Lucknow, India, with 16 rabbis representing Orthodox,...
Say what you will, but I prefer the Rosh HaShanah children's service to the adult one. It's a little under an hour, and it's lighter on the lengthy recitations of the full evening service. There's...
One of the most distinctive dimensions of the High Holy Days in our tradition is that among the major observances of the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are experienced primarily in...
The ducks grow fat on my sins.
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The Hebrew month of Elul begins soon. During this month preceding the High Holidays, many Jews take time to reflect on the past year and to take stock of their actions.
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Last year at this season, something surprising appeared in my inbox. It was a response to a challenge:
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When I left for college my freshman year, I was nervous about exploring a new Jewish community. However, I immediately felt at home as I walked into my university’s Hillel’s Conservative Friday...
“On Rosh HaShanah, the year’s decree is written, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed, who will live and who will die…”
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Every year, I set out apples and honey on our holiday table even though I don’t like traditional bee honey. This year, I have a solution.
I don’t want to raise my children in a home with yelling. And yet, when I slip in a way that’s human and understandable, I fail both myself and my children.
We want you to come to High Holiday services, but we want you to come back, too -- when it’s less crowded and when we can welcome you and show you what we’re all about.
So how does one begin the process of forgiveness?
On Rosh HaShanah it is written; on Yom Kippur it is sealed. But there’s an awful lot that happens in the middle.
Although we may think time moves in a linear fashion, Jewish holidays insert themselves in unexpected moments and places, seemingly out-of-sync with our expectations.
As a teenager, I would sit on my bedroom floor listening to old records of Belgian singer-songwriter, poet, and performer Jacques Brel. I didn’t need to keep a journal, because his lyrics wove...
In Pirkei Avot, the rabbis wrote, “Mitzvah goreret mitzvah, averah goreret averah,” one mitzvah (commandment/good deed) leads to another mitzvah, and one transgression leads to another...
Every year for 30 years, I’ve sat in a temple sanctuary on the High Holidays and watched a movie. It’s a movie only I can see – flashbacks of all the times I recall over the past 52 weeks when I...
A new year is a time to reflect, a time to repair, and a time to renew.
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Every year on the High Holidays, police officers sit outside our synagogue to protect our community and building from harm.
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When the words of liturgy are taken too literally, the sacred power of prayer is often lost. In his latest book, Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman offers a way worshipers can transcend the limitations...
Every summer, I go through the same routine. Come early August, I open the High Holidays prayer book, the machzor, and review the Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur services rapidly approaching. All of...
I imagine how Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur services feel to shul regulars: a fashion-show of strangers, preening, talking, walking in and out, coming late, and leaving early. It’s a bad theater...
