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Hear Their Cries: This Year, May We Listen to Those Who Cry Out
Rosh HaShanah – the “head of the year” – celebrates the beginning of a new year and officially starts aseret y’mei t’shvuah, 10 days of return and repentance.
High Holiday Workshop: Creating Inclusive Programming
The High Holidays are a time when more people than ever are in our buildings and in our zoom rooms. These holy days give our congregations and communities an opportunity to affirm and welcome our members from a wide range of backgrounds, or unintentionally signal that certain individuals are not welcome. Come learn how to ensure your High Holiday planning includes affirming community members of all backgrounds and ensure all of us are able to experience a community of belonging.
High Holiday Greeter REDI Workshop
Effective greeters can create a congregational culture of belonging for Jews of all backgrounds who enter your doors, whether they're members, prospective members, or visitors. Conversely, lack of a greeting, or the wrong kind of greeting, can unintentionally marginalize individuals and families and signal the exact opposite of what we are aiming to communicate. Come and engage in some simple education around creating an inclusive community from the very beginning.
High Holiday Greeter REDI Workshop
Effective greeters can create a congregational culture of belonging for Jews of all backgrounds who enter your doors, whether they're members, prospective members, or visitors. Conversely, lack of a greeting, or the wrong kind of greeting, can unintentionally marginalize individuals and families and signal the exact opposite of what we are aiming to communicate. Come and engage in some simple education around creating an inclusive community from the very beginning.
Learning from the Imperfection of Religion
Parashat Mishpatim offers a myriad of rules to guide us in how to treat other individuals and nations. It makes us wonder: Why is it easier to think and behave humanely when we consider individuals rather than nations?
Can We Have a Relationship with God?
In Ki Tisa, Moses, begs God to let him understand the Divine. And yet, we see Moses as having more access to God than any other man. If Moses cannot comprehend God, how can we hope to understand God’s ways?
Too Much of a Good Thing?
In Vayak’heil/P’kudei, the people bring so many contributions to build the Tabernacle that Moses turns some of the gifts away. Is it ever right to limit contributions that are gifts from the heart?
The Educational Value of Repetition
Leviticus, a priestly book, has as its primary focus an emphasis on the cleanliness of the community and its adherence to ritual matters for the sake of God’s blessings. … In the portion called, Emor, a significant redundancy occurs in the Hebrew text. We read that God said to Moses: Emor el hakohanim b’nei Aharon, ve-amarta aleihem… “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and you shall say to them…” (Leviticus 21:1).
The Evolving Role of the Tallit
When I was speaking with a 95-year-old congregant this week, she shared with me the uncomfortable feeling of having her synagogue change around her. “We used to be properly Reform. Now, when I come, I see people wearing a tallit..... " For her, seeing fellow congregants wearing a tallit feels like a betrayal of the Reform principles she holds dear.... The commandment to wear tzitzit, the fringes on the corners of the tallit, comes from this parashah.
A Continuity of Law that Values the Needs of the Community
The word for “and” in Hebrew is not a separate word: it is a one-letter prefix, the letter vav. Sometimes it is translated as and, other times it is best translated as “but”; sometimes, vav is a participle that doesn’t need to be translated. In the opening sentence of Parashat Mishpatim, the translation used in the Reform Movement’s Chumash discounts the vav that is attached to first word, v'eileh, "these" or "and these."