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.
Category: Jewish Values
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)
You Won’t Be There these High Holy Days
A poem about facing the moments over the High Holy Days - small but meaningful - when my dad won't be there.
Video: What’s Mourning Like?
A video that explores what it feels like to be a mourner, featuring my poem - The Secret Life of a Mourner.
Video: What to Say to a Mourner
A video that explores what to say to a mourner. Of particular significance for me since my father Ken Kipnes died.
5 Extra Minutes During Shloshim (An Ode to Not Shaving)
A poem about my experience as a mourner following the ritual of not shaving during Shloshim.
The Secret Life of the Mourner
A poem about what a mourner experiences, hidden away from the rest of the world, sometimes hidden even from friends or community members
Facing Shiva: I Don’t Like Being that One
Spoken word poetry about a rabbi who now has to be the one who sits shiva and let's other take care of him.
Mensch-ify My Kid: Giving Young Families What They Want
Be a Mensch, that's what Or Ami's innovative parenting and pre-K to 6th grade learning program is all about. Mensch-ify my Kid, Mensch-ify my Home, Mensch-ify my Playground.
Resources after a Shooting: For Solace, Support, Action and Talking to Kids
In the aftermath of the shooting in Thousand Oaks, Congregation Or Ami sent these resources - for solace, support, action and talking to kids - to all our congregants.
Vote (and here’s why): Spoken Word Poetry
Spoken Word Poetry on why American Jews must vote. Its a mitzvah!
We are Here for You: A Clergy Letter about Sexual Violence
The rabbis and cantor of Congregation Or Ami sent this letter about sexual violence to our adult congregants, our 9th-12th graders, recent high school graduates (18-22 year olds), and our faculty. We also sent a note to parents of 7th-12th graders with suggestions on conversations with their children.
To Be a Jew Today
To be a Jew today
Rabbi Paul Kipnes offers a definition for today's world.
A Prayer for When Children are Forcibly Separated from Parents
Pray for the children, The ones who were taken away; And pray for the leaders, Whose moral compasses have gone astray.
Pray for the kids, Who wallow in their cages; And pray for the guards; Whose work sullies their wages...
There’s So Much I Don’t Understand about Women (Rabbis)
I confess there is so much I don’t know about women (Rabbis) and the experience of women in the rabbinate. But I’m listening and learning.