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Habari Gani? How My Family is Melding Kwanzaa and Hanukkah Customs
As we each shared some favorite holiday memories, my partner asked, “So what does each candle of Hanukkah symbolize?” Puzzled, I asked him to explain what he meant. “You know, like for Kwanzaa.”
Inspired 5781: More Art, More Awe
I grew up going to services. A lot of services. I was adept at counting the ceiling tiles, reaching into the thousands as my grasp of numbers grew more sophisticated. The melodies became part of my life soundtrack; I hummed them as my mind wandered during the rabbi’s sermon.
Teach (and Practice) a New Jewish Value Each Night of Hanukkah
Assign a different Jewish value each one day of Hanukkah and plan appropriate activities for your family. The idea of activities is not simply doing for doing’s sake, but doing for the sake of learning. Be sure to reflect and talk afterward!
Honor Is Not Enough
Focal Point
You shall each revere your mother and your father, and keep My sabbaths: I the Eternal am your God. (Leviticus 19:3)
D'var Torah
This Yom Kippur, Let Your Emotions Serve as "Radical Blessings"
As we no longer serve God through temple sacrifices, many Jews have come to understand the entire world, in essence, to be God’s temple. This year, I believe we have vandalized God’s temple with the blood of the innocent.
How to Use the URJ Reflection Tool
We recently introduced the URJ Reflection Project, a tool for the High Holidays that can be found at reflect.reformjudaism.org. Here, we share suggestions of how to use its many ideas with your congregation.
With Wounds Still Open, We Ask: Where is God?
I do not believe that God sent us COVID-19, and I do not believe God will cure it. That is for humans to do, using our God-given intellect and ambition to develop the vaccines and treatments that will help stop the spread of this natural virus.
Your Guide to Fasting (or Not) on Yom Kippur
For many Jews, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is a fasting holiday – a day during which we abstain from eating, drinking, and even brushing our teeth or using perfumes. (Learn more about what we abstain from and why.)
How to Turn Your Home into a Sanctuary for the High Holidays
Like our ancestors before us, we must again bring worship “inside” and create a sacred space at home while we are in front of our computers.
How to Get into the High Holidays State of Mind
It's a challenge and necessity, especially during this pandemic, to set boundaries between work time and family or personal time, between home office and home. How do we do that, emotionally?