If Kol Nidre is really an Aramaic legal formula, why do we keep singing it?
Category: High Holy Days
When the World Seems Hopeless
How to find hope when the world feels hopeless.
My Chiropracter Prepared Me for Rosh Hashana
How my chiropractor prepared me for Rosh Hashana.
A Mantra for When Life is Full of Stress
How to respond when life out there is so full of stress that we often want to pull back, circle the wagons, and just take care of ourselves.
Sermon: That Time My Wife Was Spit on… In Jerusalem… By a Jew
Sermon: That Time My wife was spit on... in Jerusalem... by a Jew. AKA: Rejecting Tribalism, Embracing Discomfort
Rabbi, Do You Have a Faith That Gets You Through?
How I found faith that got me through these tumultuous years.
Guided Meditation: I Know I’m Not Alone
A guided meditation on the notion that we are not alone, created to respond to the pervasive isolation people have been feeling in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kindergarten Wisdom for an Adult World
May we be written for a good year in the Book of Life! And perhaps that will happen if we go back to basics. If we go back to kindergarten and be our best selves.
Transform Your Synagogue’s High Holy Day Appeal (Then Finally Focus on the Important Stuff)
Transform the High Holy Day Appeal now and your synagogue just might nurture a greater culture of giving. Then, defying the prognosticators of the decline of the synagogue, yours might find itself with the funding to forge ahead, fashioning a future filled with hope and excitement. Here's how Congregation Or Ami did it.
Synagogue Dues are Dead: What’s the Price Point at Which Quitting the Temple is Impossible?
Synagogue Dues are Dead, so what’s the price point at which quitting the temple becomes unnecessary or nearly impossible? How Congregation Or Ami transformed our funding model.
Drive Thru Judaism: An Antidote to Quarantined Community
Drive Thru Judaism, a series of poignant experiences that, kept people safely in their cars, while providing poignant Jewish experiences uplifted our quarantined congregation, banishing loneliness and bringing spiritual sustenance to a community in quarantine.
3 Previously Banned Behaviors to Embrace these Home High Holy Days
The new normal of distanced coronavirus kehilla tefillah (communal prayer) offers new ways to enhance your Home High Holy Days. Consider these 3 previously banned behaviors to warm up your worship. They just might enhance your experience. Just please think twice before sharing them with your clergy. They might not be completely kosher.
Fires, Shootings, Unfenced Roofs, and Uncovered Pits: Lessons from Torah in the Face of Increasing Danger
A year after the Borderline shooting and the SoCal fires, we reflect on the first person experiences, and explore Torah's insistence that we take action in the face of danger, including mass shootings and changes in climate.
Don’t Wait: Lessons from My Father-in-Law Murray November
Don't Wait: Lessons from my father-in-law Murray Novembert. (Yom Kippur sermon)
Where Was Sarah During the Akeidah (the Binding of Isaac)?
Midrashic Monologue: Where was Sarah in the Akeidah (Torah), when Abraham almost sacrificed their son Isaac? We think she saved Isaac's life and the Jewish future.