How Shabbat is Like a Snowstorm
This morning I met again with my usual cohort of Jewish clergy who study sacred texts together each week in the coffee shop.
The Music of N’ilah – Part One
By Cantor Barbara R. Finn
Why is the Jewish Sabbath observed on Saturday?
Genesis, Chapter 1 provides the basis for the Jewish week and the understanding of its days.
Defending the State of Israel, One Kiddush at a Time
Even with support of other IDF volunteers, Basic Training was stressful, demoralizing, and chaotic. Why, then, did I volunteer to lead Kiddush at a Shabbat dinner?
The Challenge of Holding God Close While Keeping Fear at Bay
The poet Yehuda Amichai writes: I don’t want an invisible god... I want a god who is seen... , so I can lead him around and tell him what he doesn’t see… ... In this week’s portion, Ki Tisa, we reconnect with this unfinished storyline at the beginning of Exodus 32. While Moses tarries atop Mount Sinai, the people down below are losing their patience:
The Unique Contributions of Women and Men Are All Needed
According to Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, or Nachmanides; 1194-1270), this week’s Torah portion, Vayak’heil, is properly understood as the necessary reconciliation between the Israelite people, on one side, and God and Moses, on the other, after the devastation of the Golden Calf episode. Ramban reads the opening phrase, “Moses then convoked the whole Israelite community (Ex. 35:1), as Moses rebuilding and healing the community through the inclusion and involvement of all ...
How Sandy Koufax Became My Hero
The start of baseball season reminds me that as a young boy in Southern California in 1965, I thought only one thing when I heard the word “hero”: Sandy Koufax.
Where was God then? Where is God now?
Rabbi Billy Dreskin is a rabbi at Woodlands Community Temple, a Reform Jewish congregation in Greenburgh, New York.
How to Understand the Timelessness of Jewish Time
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.
A Message from Rabbi Jonah Pesner on the March for Our Lives
Photo: Donovan Marks, courtesy of Washington National Cathedral.
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, made the following statement about the March for Our Lives: