On Yom Kippur: Fast, Pray, Browse
In most ways, my observance of Yom Kippur won’t be much different than thousands of other Jews in pews across North America.
We’ll fast.
We’ll pray.
We’ll browse.
Do Your Spiritual Homework for the High Holidays
We cannot walk into the gym for just a few days a year and expect to be in shape. Students cannot step into school without reviewing the material and expect to ace the test, nor can lawyers walk into a courtroom without preparing arguments and wow the jury.
How the Scapegoat in Leviticus Can Help Us Find the Truth Within Ourselves
We journey through the Torah discovering truths. Sometimes we need to look hard in the Torah and in ourselves to discover the necessary truths to properly guide our actions. Sometimes the truth appears in the most unsuspected places.
Chocolate Smooths Transitions into High Holidays
How Will You Reflect on This Year?
The 10 days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur are a time for sincere reflection.
Why Are Forgiving and Asking Forgiveness So Difficult?
Everywhere I look, I am surrounded by apologia.
Return Again: A Poem for Yom Kippur
Return.
Again.
I have returned again
to this place of
Fullness,
this place of everythingness;
and I feel empty.
Hollow.
Again.
I fling my sins,
all bright copper
and colored feathers,
out into the heavens -
Which is separate from the earth,
Keep Moving…
I joined America’s Journey for Justice in North Carolina during the week of Nitzavim, a portion that will be read again on the morning of Yom Kippur. It describes for us that moment when our ancestors stood at Sinai to enter into covenant with God.
Does one wear a tallit to services the night of Yom Kippur (Kol Nidrei)?
In the book of Numbers (15:38-39), we read that the Israelites were instructed to "make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments…that they shall look at it and recall all the commandments of the Eternal and observe them..."
A Jewish Response to Political Scandal
As we witness public figures dismantled by the revelation of ugly episodes from their pasts, we parents must distill these events and their aftermath for our children.