Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

This coming Sunday evening and Monday (and also Tuesday for more ritually observant Jews who live outside Israel), we will celebrate Shavuot. Shavuot, along with Pesach and Sukkot, is one of the Shalosh Regalim — the three pilgrimage festivals mentioned in the Torah. These festivals, which all have an agrarian foundation, have morphed into something different as Jews have become less agrarian-oriented over a period of...Read more...

The jury made the correct decision in the trial of Derek Chauvin. Anyone who watched the horror play out on video — the nine minutes and 29 seconds of slow, cold-blooded murder — could not have thought otherwise.

But I and others are left with mixed emotions, if not a sense of confusion, as to the appropriate response to the verdict. I am relieved that justice was served in this one case. I also think that for those who took a...Read more...

I was interviewed by Tablet magazine this week for an article they are researching on the increase in converts to Judaism. Two days later, I met with one of our wonderful conversion candidates. Among the many rewarding experiences that have come with being rabbi at Congregation Kol Ami is working with our conversion candidates.

Choosing to seek out a Jewish life is a decision that generally comes after much thought.  Those who...Read more...

Passover, maybe more than any other Jewish holiday, presents an opportunity for discussion and a plethora of interpretations. It is why, as a famous Talmudic tale relates, our great sages of the Talmud were enveloped in discussion throughout the night, until their students informed them it was time for the Shaharit (morning) service.

While we relate to a set group of four questions, the answers vary with time and circumstance. It is a...Read more...

Whatever the timeline is to get past the pandemic — a year and counting of living a not-normal life — there are definitely hopeful signs that the time is within reach. Among those signs is a change in demeanor and some sense of optimism amid the tragedy of lost life, lost livelihood and lost contact.

There have been changes that we may keep going forward. For Kol Ami, we will be exploring what tools have been presented to us that...Read more...