My first exposure to the events in this parsha was through the great Jewish scholar, Rabbi Steven Spielberg —specifically the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the lead Nazi dressed in the robes, breast plate,…
I want to be on time For this service, Kol Nidrei, On this night of all nights, On this Sabbath of all Sabbaths. Preparations for this night are intentional— Dinner planned out ahead of time, Leave work…
The Days of Awe are a time of internal reflection, when we look deep inside ourselves and commit to doing things differently in the coming year. They are also a time when we may renew our commitment…
G-d judges us on Rosh Hashanah. But the prayerbook says that we can still do three things before Yom Kippur to change the judgment: teshuvah, tefillah, and tzedekah. Why these three? They aren’t even written in the…
As I thought about what to say to introduce the shofar service, I thought of the lines of the Unetanah Tokef from the Rosh Hashanah service – “The great shofar is sounded, a still small voice is…
In today’s haftorah, Hannah prays for a baby. Similarly, today’s Torah portion tells of Sarah praying for a baby. Our tradition tells us we read these stories today to reinforce the power of prayer. God heard the…
The Torah reading for Rosh Hashanah tells the story of Hagar and Sarah and the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael. Here’s the back story—First the bad and uncomfortable news— Back in chapter 16, Lekh L’kha, Sarai shows…
Excerpted review from Goodreads.com: What makes us who we are? What combination of memory, history, biology, experience, and that ineffable thing called the soul defines us? In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which…
Founder: A Portrait of the First Rothschild and His TimeBy Amos Elon Excerpted from Amazon.com:Meyer Amschel Rothschild was born in the Frankfurt ghetto in the mid-eighteenth century, in a city more restrictive in its treatment of Jews…
On Sunday, September 8, after the first Sunday school of the 2019-2020 school year, members enjoyed a cookout and magic tricks, seeing old friends and making new ones, at the Annual Congregational Picnic. What a great way…