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These are search results for "simchat torah"
One of the great paradoxes of being an American Reform Jew who chose to make aliyah (move to Israel) is that the whole concept of majority and minority is turned on its head. One the one hand, as a...
A b’rachah (blessing) isn’t enough. Anytime we delve into Torah study, we need more than the b’rachah over study; we need words of strength to brace ourselves, as we engage in Torah’s complexity.
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Although my 13th birthday was in August of 1974, I became bat mitzvah in June of that year because my parents didn’t want me to worry about studying while at Camp Ramah in the Poconos over the...
One of the great examples of Reform Jewish thinking, some 2,000 years before there was anything called Reform Judaism, regards the Festival of Shavuot.
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Orthodox Judaism claims that its only platform is the Torah itself. The Conservative movement was in existence for three generations before it finally created its only set of principles in 1988....
I grew up Jewish. Simply Jewish.
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William Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name?” The holiday of Tishah B’Av, which literally translates to the “Ninth of (the month of) Av” is so named to remember the...
There are three aspects to the intellectual foundations of Reform Judaism. Two are obvious: 1.) our concept of God, and 2.) the practices, both ethical and ritual, that we think are important to...
The High Holy Day season was not an easy time for my family this year, as my son passed away in January. Rosh HaShanah includes a Torah portion about a father who almost sacrifices his son; I would...
Rabbi Dovi and Esty Scheiner were married on September 11, 2001 in New York. As Rabbi Scheiner writes, “We monitored the forecast out of concern for falling showers, but nothing could have prepared...
Throughout my years at Temple Beth Shalom in Needham, MA, I have developed relationships with a variety of people in our temple community. When I was in fourth grade, I joined the temple youth...
I hear a great many people say “I am not religious” when what they actually mean is, “I am not observant.” What is the difference between the two?
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I have two black dogs. One makes me laugh, and one makes me cry.
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A new adult education curriculum helps us explore what it means to be a Reform Jew today – reassessing Judaism as a source of inspiration, guidance, resilience, and hope.
Something historic occurred last week. It was more than a simple nomination. It is nothing less than a challenge to all of us: to acknowledge our diversity and to see the Divine in each and every...
In six steps, God takes the world from utter chaos to exquisite organization and then stops to rest. This is an example for all of us to follow.
by Marc Rosenstein(Originally published in Galilee Diary and Ten Minutes of Torah)Since its earliest days, Reform Judaism has asserted that a Judaism frozen in time is an heirloom, not a living...
Last week, Member of Knesset David Rotem described the Reform movement as "not Jewish" and "another religion." Rotem is a member of Likud-Beitenu, the lead party in the majority coalition. He also...
I must be honest. Purim is not my favorite holiday. Truth is, I was never a big costume person. Probably a therapist’s delight!
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Adah Isaacs Menken (1835-1868), the original Jewish American superstar and beautiful sensation of the Victorian era, revolutionized a woman's role on stage and in private life. Adah's heartfelt...
My love and reverence for my father grew stronger, paradoxically, the more I departed from the details of his teachings. Why? Because it was my father, a learned Orthodox Jew, who set me out on the...
Isaac Mayer Wise, widely recognized as the founder of Reform Judaism in North America, worked to create a nationally united expression of Judaism under his leadership.
Shabbat and Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel's Independence Day. On the surface, these holidays have little in common. One has existed literally since the beginning of creation, the other since 1948. Shabbat...
Twenty-five years ago, I interviewed six rabbinic students at the New York campus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion "to find out what's on the minds of our future spiritual...
By August 1915, World War I was raging in the most densely Jewish areas of Polish and Lithuanian Russia on the dreaded Eastern Front. On the Western Front, the fields of Belgium's Flanders region...
Anyone who has been a synagogue member or professional knows that the synagogue president is the unsung hero of Judaism in America. The synagogue president, often by personal nature and always by...
The rabbis of Pirkei Avot bring us four kinds of students, and the Mishnah goes on to compare each one to a different kitchen utensil.
by Marc Rosenstein(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary)Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is present in this place, and I did not know it!" Shaken, he...
There was a time when attending Shabbat services meant dressing up: suits and ties for men, dresses for women. In those days, my pre-teen son sometimes wore a bow-tie, and my daughter relished...
Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman of HUC-JIR was the visiting scholar this past Shabbat at Rodef Shalom of Falls Church, Virginia, as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations. After Shabbat morning services,...
Israelis for years rejected Reform as an import. They imported jeans and Coca Cola with enthusiasm – but pluralism and egalitarianism were stopped at the border…-Rabbi Naamah Kelman-Ezrahi, dean of...
A few years ago, at a rabbinic meeting in Boston, we were asked to write a statement, which could be read in 30 seconds or less, about Judaism and the role we play as clergy. Obviously, the...
Yes, I wear a prayer shawl and phylacteries when I pray but it has taken me years to get over judging myself as a woman wearing items “traditionally” worn only by men.
“So, what exactly is your background?”
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