Celebrate Rosh HaShanah with Shalom Sesame and Rosh HaShanah Hannah
Celebrate Rosh HaShanah with Shalom Sesame: Sounding the Shofar
6 Ways to Prepare for the High Holidays
Honoring My Christian Family
The Binding: A Prayer for Rosh Chodesh and Women of the Wall
I was proud to have been at a Rosh Chodesh service yesterday morning in Chicago, IL. I was proud to have been asked to help lead the service, proud to don my tallit and stand before a congregation of people who had come together to pray, celebrate, and sing.
The New Reform Machzor and the Shofar Service
The traditional High Holy Day prayer book, as opposed to the Reform versions produced in the last century and more, includes a service, musaf, that evokes the ancient sacrifices. Reform Judaism abandoned this service, due to its musty connotations of “barbarian” rites but a key element of this service on Rosh Hashanah, the sounding of the shofar was maintained. Sounding of the shofar was retained no doubt because the very essence of Rosh Hashanah is bound up in the peal of the shofar. Can you imagine Rosh Hashanah without it
The Shofar Service: Malchiyot, Zichronot, Shofarot
The blowing of the shofar is surely one of the high points of the Rosh Hashanah morning service. But the “Shofar Service” as the discrete entity we know today is actually a creation of Reform liturgists. Located at the end of the Torah service, before the Torah is returned to the ark, and including the three sections of Malchiyot (biblical verses dealing with God’s Sovereignty), Zichronot (biblical verses dealing with God’s Attentiveness), andShofarot (biblical verses dealing with the sounding of the Shofar), this is a synthesis of two different pieces of traditional liturgy
Shabbat and the Blessing of Family
As a teenager in Flint, MI, most of my peers spent their Friday evenings at the movies with friends or at high school football games. When I told my friends why I couldn't join them, they were flabbergasted.
How to Make Israel Independence Day a Sacred Day
Jewish Summer Camp: Where Friends Become Family
In 1975, I was a little girl coming to URJ Camp Harlam,a Jewish sleepaway camp, following in my cousin’s footsteps. I hung on to her for dear life every time we passed each other in camp. Slowly I began to develop friendships with the girls in my bunk, loosening my tight grip on my cousin.