Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

By the time you read this, we will be past Yom Kippur looking toward Sukkot, which begins this Sunday evening. Sukkot is Z’man Simchateinu, the Season of our Joy. This emotional swing from the difficulty of confronting our behavior on Yom Kippur actually begins with the Yom Kippur concluding service, Neilah, which ends the day on a high note.

It is always gratifying to see the community come together at the end of a long Yom...Read more...

I recently taught the Jewish calendar to the community-wide conversion class. For some of the conversion students, it was not the first time I had been studying with them. They have been pretty regular participants in Kol Ami study and worship, beginning earlier this summer.

Having made the choice to become part of the Jewish community (and hopefully Kol Ami), they bring a sense of commitment and energy that is transformative for our...Read more...

As I write this, my laptop computer is limping toward the end of its useful life. For me, this has brought on a sense of dread — dread that I might lose something that I have saved on the computer (even if I have not looked at it in the last eight years or so), dread over having to familiarize myself with new technology, dread at losing this communication lifeline.

I am not one to decry our overreliance on our computers. I do...Read more...

Kansas City is one of the only major cities in the country without local control of its police department. Large swaths of the Kansas City community have persistently gone unrepresented on the Board of Police Commissioners, made up of our mayor and four members appointed by Missouri’s governor. There has been little to no representation east of Troost and overrepresentation from the Waldo, Brookside and Plaza...Read more...

We observed Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, this past weekend. It’s a day that commemorates the destruction of the first and second temples, and any churban, any persecution, that has befallen the Jewish people. It culminates a three-week period of mourning on the Jewish calendar. (This year, we actually observed it on the 10th day of Av because it is a fast day — a fast day other than Yom Kippur is postponed by a day when...Read more...