Dear Friends, This one goes out to all my people struggling with anxiety! Stress, worry, fear, etc. In this week’s parsha, Jacob is deep in it. It’s been years since he’s taken his brother Esau’s birthright and blessing, and now he has two wives, two concubines, over a dozen children, a lot to lose. He finds out that Esau Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, I’m really into this verse from Parshat Noach right now. It comes up after the flood, after Noah and his family get off the ark, but before they start the rebuilding process. They make an offering to God, and that’s when we get the first covenant in the Torah. It says, “Adonai smelled the pleasing odor, Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, This Shabbat Sukkot, preparing for Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah and the weather getting cooler, I’d like to share three short poems: Under the Broken Sky: A Prayer for Sukkot by SuzieB, written as a responsive reading As the stars twinkle high in the heavens, Our view is fractured by the schach over Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, Yom Kippur is barely behind us, and Sukkot is about to begin. I’m finding it really interesting to think about the relationship between the two of them. I mean, if Yom Kippur is the most important Jewish holiday (it’s certainly up there), and it’s the time when we’re the most spiritually stirred up and ready Continue Reading »
Dear Friends, This Shabbat is a special one; the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – Shabbat Shuva. The Shabbat of Return. The week’s haftarah, fittingly, opens with the words, “Return, Israel, to Adonai your God, for you have stumbled in your transgressions” (Hosea 14:2). The Sefat Emet – Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger, Continue Reading »