Rabbi's Week in Review - 2/27/2023
02/27/2023 03:41:00 PM
With this week’s Torah portion focusing on the priestly garments and with the costumes worn on Purim, we are squarely focused on the clothes we wear. The purpose of the two could not be more diametrically opposed.
The priestly garments — the clothes worn by the Kohanim — are worn with a sense of lifting up the Kohanim in their role as spiritual leaders. Whether you see this detailed emphasis on their clothes, replete with...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 2/21/2023
02/21/2023 10:35:59 AM
I am thinking, this week, about growing old, and I am thinking about death. I hasten to add that I am not putting the two together — I am not thinking about growing old as a step closer to the inevitability of death. Rather, I am struck by how some people carry themselves with dignity through both experiences.
Among the events that moved me in this direction was a shiva service I led Sunday night. I saw many familiar faces I had not...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 2/13/2023
02/13/2023 05:46:02 PM
Given how I choose to spend my volunteer time, it would be disingenuous for me to suggest that how I interpret our Jewish values and how I choose to live those values are somehow apolitical. Yet I am drawing on two examples of issues that have become politicized but really do not have to be so.
Last week we came together to celebrate Tu B’Shevat, the 15th day of the Jewish month of Shevat, most often referred to as the birthday...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 2/7/2023
02/07/2023 11:18:01 AM
A short blog this week with a simple message — really a message and a reminder, as much for me as for anyone else. Among the mitzvot we read about this week in our Torah’s recitation of the Ten Commandments is our instruction to remember and keep Shabbat.
My message is not so much an admonition to be strict in observing the halakhically prohibited acts on Shabbat. More than that, it’s the simple idea of honoring this gift from...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 1/30/2023
01/30/2023 03:43:47 PM
We know all too well that our story — the story of our exodus and being freed from bondage — is only the beginning of our story. We have been fighting ever since for our freedom — the freedom to be who we are as Jews, without fear or threat of harm or persecution. Yet, being redeemed from slavery serves as a foundation of hope. For whatever dire straits we are in, we always hold out hope.
We are not alone in the importance we...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 1/23/2023
01/23/2023 04:07:10 PM
A lawsuit was filed this past week against the State of Missouri by 13 Missouri clergy/faith leaders. The lawsuit seeks to declare that Missouri’s abortion ban is an unconstitutional establishment of a single religious point of view.
I am one of those 13 faith leaders, five of whom are rabbis (40 percent of the group). Included in that group are Maharat Rori Picker Neiss and Rabbis Susan Talve, James Bennett and Andrea...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 1/16/2023
01/16/2023 04:19:41 PM
This past Friday evening, we celebrated our third Shabbat Shulchan — a very informal Erev Shabbat service followed by a Seudah, a shared festive Shabbat meal at our “Shabbat Table.” All three of our Shabbat Shulchan celebrations (held on the second Friday evening of the month) have welcomed new people into the Kol Ami community.
I am always proud and grateful for how our Kol Ami family is so welcoming to every new person who...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 1/9/2023
01/09/2023 08:11:06 PM
I’m writing this after receiving an antidote to a stressful week — really as much a reminder or a refresher course, if you will.
The stress came from both schedule management (or, a more accurate descriptor, my great challenge in managing my schedule) and the politics of the week. Leaving aside the former, which is a constant and is not going to change anytime soon, the latter came from the dysfunction on display in the House of...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 1/2/2023
01/02/2023 05:40:23 PM
I/we take this time to reflect on our lives, both communally and individually. Not so much because of celebrating the secular new year (although that’s not a bad reason to do some productive contemplation), but rather that in our very short and colder days, days filled with more darkness than light, we naturally take on a more internal focus. We search for the light within.
In our daily study of a page of Talmud, Daf Yomi, we are...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 12/19/2022
12/19/2022 03:37:53 PM
At our annual Congregation Kol Ami Chanukah celebration, I mentioned that there may have been a certain ambivalence toward the holiday. The Talmud seems to give short shrift to it relative to our other festivals. It has multiple themes that are not necessarily in concert with one another.
On one level, it celebrates a military victory — the victory of the Hasmoneans (Maccabees) over Hellenism. It is a celebration of religious...Read more...
Wed, August 13 2025
19 Av 5785
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