Rabbi's Week in Review - 3/4/2024
03/04/2024 04:08:51 PM
This past Shabbat morning, a group of us Kol Ami-nicks got up at the crack of dawn and headed to our state capital of Jefferson City. We celebrated Shabbat together and then, as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel z”l said, we prayed with our feet. As part of a kickoff event for the Poor People’s Campaign, we held a rally in the rotunda of the Capitol.
This was a kickoff to an effort of the next weeks and months to register...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 2/27/2024
02/27/2024 09:49:50 AM
Fay and I were in New York over the weekend. We had a wonderful time being with family and friends, seeing great theater and art, and eating way too much. We saw an interesting exhibit at the Jewish Museum by Argentine artist Marta Minujin. She is known for her soft sculptures, performance art and happenings.
The write-up on the exhibit indicated that she is Jewish. There was nothing in the exhibit, however, that would strike one as...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 2/19/2024
02/19/2024 03:29:49 PM
For the next couple of weeks, I will be providing information on an important event taking place March 2 in Jefferson City, Mo. I would be more than remiss, however, if I did not make some mention of the horrific shooting that took place at the end of the Chiefs Super Bowl celebration.
I, like many with whom I have spoken, have feelings of both sadness and anger. Sadness over life lost and lives irreparably changed for worse, due to...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 2/12/2024
02/12/2024 05:40:49 PM
I write this as I bask in the glow of the Chiefs Super Bowl win. As a lifelong Kansas Citian and having the opportunity as a kid to go to Chiefs’ games in the old Municipal Stadium, at 22nd and Brooklyn, it takes me back to experiences shared over Chiefs, Royals and KU (mostly basketball) with family and friends.
There is much to critique about professional sports, particularly in the case of the Chiefs — the physical dangers of...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 2/5/2024
02/05/2024 04:06:33 PM
I had the chance to have breakfast this past week with a valued friend, the Rev. Dr. Rodney Williams. As always, the conversation was far-ranging, catching up on the personal, the work of our respective congregations, and our shared work in pursuing justice.
How we approach our various relationships seems to be a topic that crosses all facets of our lives. More specifically, whether the way we and others engage is done...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 1/29/2024
01/29/2024 03:05:48 PM
To say that 2024 is an important year for our country is an understatement. I feel that there has never been a more crucial time for the future of the United States in my lifetime.
Recently, two things have reminded me of the urgency of the moment. One was the announcement of a campaign to seek an amendment to the Missouri Constitution, ensconcing abortion as a right. Over the next few months, there will be efforts to put this to...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 1/22/2024
01/22/2024 04:48:00 PM
This past Shabbat, we shared feelings and perspectives on the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine — or Gaza or Hamas, depending on whom you ask. This discussion was all at once difficult, emotional, respectful and, most of all, important.
It was clear that there was no agreement about the best path forward, about how Israel should or should not respond to the terrorist acts of Hamas on October 7. Is Israel doing too much...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 1/15/2024
01/15/2024 03:15:55 PM
After a couple of morning meetings Monday, with the temp at -2 degrees F, it’s cold out there. I am approaching the cold as mind over matter — that if I can get myself to think that it’s not such a big deal, then it won’t be a big deal.
Part of this thought process is represented in Rabbi Jill Hammer’s The Jewish Book of Days, which we're reading on a regular basis during the weekday-morning service. In the...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 1/8/2024
01/08/2024 03:40:02 PM
The main feature of my past week was contracting Covid for the second time. Thank G-d, the symptoms were not too serious, and I know I’ll be fine. However, it did make me (if only temporarily) a bit of a pariah in the community. Nobody says it quite like that, and it’s very temporary. At the same time, I kept thinking how Miriam and others were banished from the encampment during 40 years wandering in the wilderness.
For me, it...Read more...
Rabbi's Week in Review - 1/2/2024
01/02/2024 12:48:39 PM
This week we enter into the new (secular) year 2024. While it is not within the spiritual rhythm of our Jewish calendar, it does provide a time to consider what will happen in the year to come, and how we can impact the coming year for good. Coming off a difficult 2023 with the threats to democracy in our own country and the horrific violence impacting our Jewish brethren in Israel as well as innocent Palestinian civilians, I am thinking...Read more...
Wed, May 7 2025
9 Iyyar 5785
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