I’m home from the Institute for Jewish Spirituality Hevraya (alumni) retreat. Four days with rabbis and cantors (and a few educators) to explore, deepen, develop, uncover our spirituality and our relationship with the Holy One. Meditation, yoga, silence (10pm until 1pm the next day), chassidic text study, intense prayer. I have blogged plenty about my …
I'm finishing up a four day Hevraya (alumni) spirituality retreat for rabbis and cantors sponsored by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Four days to engage into Jewish spiritual practices – meditation, yoga, text study, prayer, silence and collegiality. To reengage the waning practices to return to mindful Jewish Living.I feel back on track. I feel …
To daven (pray) with colleagues – rabbis and cantors – can be a uniquely uplifting experience. We share language, knowledge, passion, spiritual search, struggles with God…To daven when spiritually reflective colleagues lead the service is doubly engaging – they invest their leading with the answers they have foun and the questions that still consume them.This …
Nothing like a walk in the hills to reconnect you to the outdoors, to nature, to Hamakom, God-is-everywhere.
Silence it’s a gift from the Holy One. In the midst of the cacophony of life, it is good to seek out silence
We were in the middle of the Baraghimian Bar Mitzvah. Child number three was doing a fabulous job leading the service. Parents were schepping nachas (filling with joy); friends and family were enjoying the experience. Having traveled to Israel with the whole family, including the grandparents, I knew the grandparents were a wonderful couple, unafraid …
I will be showing up in my sweats at Temple again on Wednesday, February 3rd for another installment of our Holy Yoga series, a (sometimes) monthly drop in yoga experience in the back of the sanctuary. I’ll be there with my mat and sweats. I’m hoping others will too. Why? In early December, almost two …
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, wrote: I am saddened and dismayed by recent events at the Western Wall. These events are a tragedy — a blow to the State of Israel and to the unity of the Jewish people. Love of Israel unites Jews everywhere. Love of Jerusalem unites Jews …
Our congregant Ray Joelson recently reflected upon the experience when his son Jay became a Bar Mitzvah. With his permission, I share it here: Our son recently became Bar Mitzvah at Congregation Or Ami and there is much for our family to reflect upon and even more to carry forward and cherish for a lifetime. …
In honor of Tu B’shvat, the Jewish Arbor Day First, You Come To The Garden Alone,While The Dew Is Still On The Roses…. For The Garden Of Your Daily Living, Plant Three Rows Of Peas: 1. Peace Of Mind2. Peace Of Heart3. Peace Of Soul Plant Four Rows Of Squash: 1. Squash Gossip2. Squash Indifference3. …
There we stood, Rabbi and three generations of the Tillis family, preparing to physically pass down the Torah midor lador (from generation to generation). This primarily Reform Movement tradition makes manifest what is happening in fact and deed: that another young adult is receiving Torah from his ancestors. At the end of this line of …
With Tu B’shvat (the Jewish Holy Day of Trees) coming up, I have been exploring the relationship between nature, trees, humanity and Judaism. I came across this quote from Rabbi Yisrael of Chortkov (in Ginzei Yisrael), who teaches hope in the face of dispair: There is a lesson hinted at by Tu BeShvat, for “a …
A prayer for the people of Haiti, who, on a good day, must take heroic measures just to wake the next, And who must now find a way to live through the end of the world: O Compassionate One,whose relief work is beyond our capabilities Breathe life today into those buried alive and strengthen the …
In this week’s parasha, we encounter Moses at the burning bush, speaking to God. In response to the instruction to go down to Egypt to free the Israelites from Pharaoh’s oppression, he asks a simple question: When people ask who You are, what shall I tell them? The answer: Ehiyeh asher Ehiyeh. I am who …
In a new Jewish ritual, recently affiliated members of Congregation Or Ami walk through a tunnel of tallits (prayer shawls) held by veteran congregants. After they transitioned from “newness” into being fully part of the synagogue family, Rabbi Paul Kipnes and Cantor Doug Cotler, amidst joy and tears, offered blessings of welcome. Synagogue president Susan …