Rabbi's Week in Review - 8/21/2023
08/21/2023 05:20:41 PM
We at Congregation Kol Ami have always committed ourselves to be a most welcoming community. For us, this has meant welcoming those who may have felt unwelcome or somehow marginalized at other shuls. As we like to say, we want to welcome anyone who is somewhere on a Jewish journey or who supports anyone on that journey.
Probably the most challenging part of my work as rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami has come when we have welcomed...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 8/14/2023
08/14/2023 02:42:25 PM
I am writing in regard to the Roeland Park City Council hearing held Monday, August 7, and specifically to the resolution on anti-Semitism. As I was out of town and could not attend the hearing, my response is actually to the article in the KC Jewish Chronicle covering the hearing. As such, I am assuming accuracy in how the article described the events of the evening, and that those quoted in the article were done so accurately.
I...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 8/7/2023
08/07/2023 10:53:56 PM
We were inundated with news and commentary this past week regarding the Trump indictment(s). I have to admit to being a bit of a legal wonk about this stuff, notwithstanding that it has been decades since I have actively practiced law or have even taken a continuing legal education course. It comes out in me regarding issues about the overarching importance of the rule of law in our country (also an issue of vital importance as the judicial...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 8/1/2023
08/01/2023 09:30:23 AM
It is good to be back on with our Congregation Kol Ami newsletter after a summer hiatus. While summer is a time in which we expect to take a break, the Jewish calendar, with its particular logical rhythm, pushes us forward toward a continual process of self-reflection, self-improvement and living Torah in our daily lives. It is a balance of mourning/sadness and celebration/joy, contemplation/study and action/engagement.
In...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 6/19/2023
06/19/2023 06:08:58 PM
I spent the better part of last week at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, Connecticut, at the final/culminating retreat for my Clergy Leadership Incubator (CLI), a two-year rabbinic fellowship striving to promote significant transformation of synagogue life. (And I, the rabbi, consistently test as an introvert every time I take a Myers-Briggs personality test, resulting in an approach to retreats bordering on...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 6/12/2023
06/12/2023 10:16:18 PM
We had a wonderful service this past Shabbat at the Manheim Community Garden. Every time we are out in the garden, it is a gift for us and a valuable contribution to our community.
Some thank-yous as I reflect back on our Shabbat time together. Thanks to Steve and Linda Sackin for being instrumental (as in, it would have never happened nor continue to happen without them) in all that is good about the Manheim Garden. Thanks to...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 6/6/2023
06/06/2023 10:01:09 AM
For someone who can make no claim of musicianship, I have made music a pretty constant companion my entire life. I cannot recall a time when I was without music, and I can track certain times in my life to specific songs or groups that were prominent during that time.
This has much to do with my being enamored of the radio as a form of communication. As a kid, I would get up early in our home and sit by the radio in the...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 5/29/2023
05/29/2023 12:29:54 PM
I have been under the weather for almost two weeks — certainly not life-threatening, and I don’t mention it to elicit sympathy, notwithstanding a modicum of whining and wimpiness inflicted upon Fay at home. If I could characterize it in a slightly broader perspective, my body has become increasingly annoying with age.
It has been awhile since I have come down with an illness. (I had Covid with mild symptoms in January 2022.)...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 5/23/2023
05/23/2023 11:32:22 AM
This week we celebrate Shavuot, one of the Shalosh Regalim — the three pilgrimage festivals. As Pesach (Passover) is the most popular of all Jewish holidays, and Sukkot has become increasingly popular recently, Shavuot is arguably the forgotten of these three Torah chagim/holidays.
Yet Shavuot is central to our existence. In celebrating the receiving of Torah at Mt. Sinai, we are really celebrating our ongoing Jewish...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 5/15/2023
05/15/2023 03:56:47 PM
In this, my weekly blog, my thoughts seem to move back and forth between being more positive and inspiring (at least, I hope they inspire) and pointing out injustices in order to fulfill our obligation as Jews to work for a more just community and world. I don’t have it necessarily planned out that way. It is more a reflection of the state of the world in which we need to carve out moments of joy in order to confront the chaos.
When...Read more...
Sat, August 16 2025
22 Av 5785
Sign Up For Our Newsletter
Holidays At A Glance