Toward Shabbat
Transcendence in the Mundane
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- By Rachel Sietz
Tonight, my wife Sarah and I will bathe our kids, light candles, make kiddush and motzi, read one more book (and then a bonus book, ...
Within Each Season Is Everything
The opening stanza of Yehuda Amichai’s famous poem “A Man in His Life” captures much of what I was feeling last Thursday night, as Israel’s ...
Hope Amidst Uncertainty
Once again, we enter Shabbat this week holding our breaths. We are living through an especially scary and uncertain time—nationally, globally, as Jews, and as ...
What Seeds Will You Plant?
The sign read: “Courtyard Concerts—Today at 6:30!” A few weeks ago, as I was walking down West 85th Street on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, this ...
From Manna to Modern Day Hunger: the Abundance of Shabbat
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- By Kiana Davis
There is a powerful connection between food and Shabbat. The Torah first mentions Shabbat when the Israelites are instructed to collect the manna that fell ...
We Cry Out
The theme of the American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday evening was entitled “Turning Pain into Purpose.” It featured members ...
The Fires That Sustain Us
We closed out the Kadima@BJ school year on Tuesday with what is becoming an annual tradition: Our students learned and sang a number of Israeli ...
Celebrating Partnership and Planting Seeds
It was the spring of 2002. I can still remember sitting in a cab with Sarale Shadmi, Chen Ben-Or Tsfoni, and Tlalit Shavit z”l on ...
These Words of Prayer Get Stuck in My Throat
Recently, we have been saying Hallel—the short additional prayer service for special days, full of psalms of praise and gratitude—a lot. As we always do ...
We Lived Through Pharaoh, We Will Live Through This Too
One year ago, I wrote about my cousin Dov in this Toward Shabbat column. Marking the first Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, and Yom Ha’Atzma-ut since ...
The Struggle for Freedom in Times of Fear
I mostly remember the experience of fear. Fear of calling the attention of the security forces. Fear of being in the wrong place at the ...
From “No Entiendo” to Shema
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- By Annie Bovitz
“No entiendo” (I don’t understand) became my motto for our BJ Teen trip to the Dominican Republic this past February. Trying to communicate with locals ...
A Lesson from Nature’s Quiet Teachers
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- By Joe Blumberg
Who knew donkeys could teach such deep Torah? This past week, many former BJ Rabbinic Fellows gathered for a reunion retreat in the woods of ...
The Ongoing Legacy of the BJ Rabbinic Fellowship
In 1995, the Righteous Persons Foundation reached out to Roly to have a conversation. The BJ community was growing by leaps and bounds. Services were ...
Esther Didn’t Stand Alone and Neither Do We
When I’m asked if I always wanted to be a rabbi, I give the same answer: I didn’t really know I could be a rabbi ...
Choosing Love
“Ahhh, the monster is coming!” my two-and-a-half-year-old shrieks. “Quick, hide under the blanket. It’s a scary one!” I know this game well. As I’ve written ...
Bearing Witness: A Journey to the US/Mexico Border
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- By Kiana Davis
In December, I had the opportunity to join a Jewish delegation border trip to Tijuana and San Diego, led by HIAS. Being there in person, ...
Humble Conviction
I was fifteen years old and in a fight with my father. It was 1992, and a massive rally for reproductive rights was to take ...
Love is in the Air
You can’t help but think about love on a day like today. And I’m not just referring to the overabundance of red hearts and Valentine’s ...
Of Bicentennials and Freedom
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- By Joe Blumberg
I grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, a town that takes great pride in being the site of the first battle of the American Revolution on ...
When Prayer Feels Hard
This week, I had the profound privilege of participating in the opening retreat for the Pedagogies of T’fillah Research Fellowship, launched by M²: The Institute ...
Moshe, Empathy, and the Path to Justice
Sometimes when I read the week’s parasha, I have to stop and think about what it can teach me in that moment. This isn’t one ...
Our Work in the Next Four Years
Next Monday, January 20, as we honor the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Donald Trump will be inaugurated for his ...
“It’s Our Story to Write”
On November 15, 1825 B’nai Jeshurun applied for incorporation, New York’s first Ashkenazic synagogue. Leading the charge were the young people boldly declaring “their intention ...
Drawing From Time’s Wisdom
January 1st was triply special this year. We began a new secular year; observed Rosh Hodesh to bring in the Hebrew month of Tevet; and ...
Finding Light in the Darkness
As a child, I was never afraid of the dark. The Things-That-Go-Bump-In-The-Night didn’t scare me. I was too in love with the magic and the ...
Finding Light in the Interregnum
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- By Joe Blumberg
I was at Shabbat dinner with some BJ members last week, and the conversation turned to the 20th-century anti-facist Italian philosopher, Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci is ...
Living with Joy as the Baseline
Every year since I was ordained, I have set a new “spiritual mantra” for the year at Rosh Hashanah. In past years, these mantras have ...
My Heart Shattered
A little over three months ago, my heart shattered as I listened to Rachel Goldberg Polin eulogize her beloved son, Hersh, after he had been ...
What happens now?
“What happens now?” Like many of you, I have been mired in this question since the morning of November 6. What will happen with our ...
How to Say Goodbye
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- By Sammy Kanter
I inherited the trait of “the Jewish goodbye” from my family. A Jewish goodbye is one where you say goodbye to folks, but then don’t ...
The God of Small Things
I don’t remember the details of the plot of the book but I can quickly identify its spine on my bookshelf and I will never ...
The Ark of Shabbat
We come to the end of a loud and heavy week. Loud with a relentless cacophony: speeches, rallies, cable news pundits, analysis, processing groups, WhatsApp notifications, ...
I Can Do It With a Broken Heart
Sometimes you receive revelation at the foot of Mount Sinai and other times it comes to you in a stadium in Miami. At least that ...
My Sense of Spirituality
I remember being 9 years old and having my very first existential crisis. I had just watched some corny YouTube video about space and how ...
An Antidote to Social (Media) Distancing
“Are we friends?” a friend of mine asked excitedly. I was totally confused by her question. How was it not obvious to her? “Of course!” ...
From Personal Vows to Sacred Traditions
As you read this, I am already on my way to Providence to celebrate the wedding weekend of my best friend from rabbinical school. On ...
Some Thoughts on Yom Yerushalayim—Jerusalem Day
In 1970, when I was 14 years old, I visited Israel for the first time with my family. I had read Leon Uris’s Exodus a ...
Blessings and Curses
On the first of Tishrei, 1947, my Bubbe was standing outside shul with a friend when a tall, handsome man (her words) walked up and ...
I Cannot Wait to Return to You
Week after week, I tell my wife that I’ll only be at kiddush for five minutes—ten tops. And each week, about an hour later, she ...
Honoring These 25 Years
Two weeks ago I received my honorary Doctor of Divinity from HUC-JIR for serving 25 years in the rabbinate. The day began on the bimah ...
We Are Still Here
I have always had the acute feeling of being both an insider and outsider in Israel. I have lived there, but never served in the ...
Torah Stands on Love
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- By Sammy Kanter
During my teenage years, I began to grasp the truth about my identity as a gay man. I wish I could say this period of ...
Last Pesah We Had a Visit from Eliyahu
On Pesah 2023, we had an unexpected visitor. A middle aged man who appeared scared and lost was pacing up and down our suburban street ...
What makes this Passover different from all other Passovers?
It’s been 195 days but for me (and I imagine many others) it’s still October 7. With millions of people in Israel and Gaza embroiled ...
Learning How To Pray
I joined the BJ Hebrew school program as a shy fourth grader. Since my parents took a couple of years to find the right synagogue, ...
Where Is Home?
I have been in Buenos Aires this week visiting my father. Though we FaceTime every day, it is a special joy to hug him, to ...
The Back of the Bus
One of the great things about working with children is that I am constantly re-learning to see the world not as the big moments I ...
Keeping Hope Alive
Growing up in an interfaith family, we went to church on Christmas every year to support our family members in their faith. These holidays may ...
If a Woman Had Written the Torah
“If a woman had written the Torah, the creation story would have been a birthing story.” These words were spoken by an Orthodox feminist scholar ...
Living Our New Song
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- By Sammy Kanter
It’s Friday evening a few weeks ago, and we’re about to kick off our very first brand new Aviv Kabbalat Shabbat and dinner for folks ...
We Are All Artists
We were immersed in learning a dance for our wedding. And not just any dance, but one that my saba, now a retired Israeli-dance teacher ...
You are a Queen
In Smashing Pumpkins’ iconic song Zero, Billy Corgan sings, “I’m in love with my sadness.” When I first heard that lyric, all I could think ...
Refugee Shabbat: A Call for Justice in Our Time
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- By Kiana Davis
This Shabbat we delve into Parashat Yitro, a pivotal moment in our history when we received the Torah at Mount Sinai. Although this is a ...
Music To My Ears
On the Sunday of MLK Weekend, I was sitting in the pews at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, surrounded by BJ teens and several hundred ...
The Ineffable Moments
I got choked up the moment I saw the land of Israel from the tiny airplane window. The sun shining over the splotches of green ...
Love is the Engine
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously said, “I am an optimist against my better judgment.” In general, I tend to sit in the space of optimism. ...
Build Houses and Live in Them
My wife, Miranda, and I recently had the pleasure of attending our friend Molly’s wedding. In her vows, Molly lovingly quoted a verse from the ...
Like Ephraim and Menashe
When we bless our children on Friday nights with the priestly blessings, my husband and I combine the traditional openings referencing both male and female ...
Cherishing the Jewish Spirit
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- By Sammy Kanter
It felt dishonest to walk many of my students through an exploration of Judaism, finding ways for them to love and embrace what it means ...
How Do We Keep Our Past From Weighing On Our Present?
Last year, my partner and I spent the eighth night of Hanukkah in Portugal just after I finished a semester of rabbinical school in Jerusalem. ...
We’re Still Here
We shouldn’t be here. We should have disappeared long ago like the Hittites and the Babylonians and the Assyrians and all the other ancient peoples ...
Looking Beyond the Present Moment
I am a hopeful person by nature, an “optimist against my better judgment,” as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once said. Like so many, since October 7 ...
Judaism Was Built For This Moment
“I’m really tired of living in historic and unprecedented times. I would like to go back to precedent, please.” Six weeks after the horrifying events ...
Holding Joy and Sadness
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- By Sammy Kanter
For me, and I know for many of you, joy feels hard to come these days and is particularly diminished by our social media feeds. ...
How I Find Emotional Release
My younger sister and I have always been very close. In middle school, after spending a summer apart, we missed each other so much that ...
The Two Tables
I had seen the profound images of the empty Shabbat tables in Tel Aviv and around the world, set for the 200+ Israeli hostages who ...
How a Simple Prayer Binds Us: From Rain to Redemption
On Shemini Atzeret, we begin adding a phrase to the Amidah prayer asking for rain. For centuries, we’ve said these words. But this year, Shemini ...
The Heartbeat of a People: Finding Light After Darkness
As the horror and enormity of the news was unfolding from Israel this past Saturday while we celebrated Shabbat and prepared for Simhat Torah, we ...
Toward Shabbat: Korah
Nine years ago I was outed and fired for being gay. Aside from the practical question of how I would pay next month’s rent, I ...
Toward Shabbat: Shelah Lekha
“Double your pleasure, double your fun…” While many of us may know this expression as the catchy jingle from the old Doublemint Gum commercials, it ...
Toward Shabbat: Beha’alotekha
I don’t usually talk about being gay. The reason I avoid it is twofold. When I was first coming out (and even sometimes today), I was ...
Toward Shabbat: Naso
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- By Aaron Leven
My first trip to New York City was when I was 10 years old, back in 2001. As a family we walked all over town, ...
Toward Shabbat: Shabbat Shavuot
I was ordained 24 years ago. Two days after I became a rabbi, my father went in for open heart surgery. Just a couple of days ...
Toward Shabbat: Bemidbar
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- By Eliza Anker
It’s May of senior year and I feel stuck. I’m stuck between caring and not feeling motivated. I’ve already been accepted to college—do I really need ...
Toward Shabbat: Behar-Behukkotai
I’ve been thinking a lot about ego recently: the role that it plays in my life; and my ongoing efforts to infuse accomplishment with humility, ...
Toward Shabbat: Emor
“Watch out, Mommy!” my two and a half year old will say. “There’s a monster behind you!” Then she yells “run away!” and signals for ...
Toward Shabbat: Aharei Mot-Kedoshim
We have just completed the yearly succession of holidays and commemorations that take us from Pesah to Yom Hashoah to Yom Hazikaron and to Yom ...
Toward Shabbat: Tazri’a-Metzora
On Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Day of Remembrance of Fallen Soldiers, the sadness and grief in the country is palpable. In the U.S., by comparison, our ...
Toward Shabbat: Shemini
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- By Aaron Leven
Without a doubt, Parashat Shemini includes one of the most heart-wrenching, devastating narratives of the Torah. In the midst of our learning about the process ...
Toward Shabbat: Tzav
I distinctly remember the archeology class I took during my junior year abroad at Hebrew University. We would study the Tanakh in the classroom and ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayikra
I was seven years old when my youngest brother was born, old enough to participate in marking his many milestones on his “Baby’s First Year” ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayak’hel-Pekudei
I spent last weekend in Washington, DC, with 18 BJ Haverim (7th-grade) students. After a beautiful Shabbat, we welcomed the new week with Havdalah. On ...
Toward Shabbat: Ki Tissa
“Heavenly Jerusalem, earthly Jerusalem. Never has a city been so beautiful and so blemished, so revered and so reviled, so easy to love and so ...
Toward Shabbat: Tetzaveh
In this week’s parashah, Tetzaveh, God outlines to Moshe the priestly vestments that Aaron will wear as the high priest of B’nai Yisrael. Aaron is ...
Toward Shabbat: Terumah
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- By Aaron Leven
As the Israelites are in the early stages of their long journey through the desert, which we read in this week’s parashah, God gives the people ...
Toward Shabbat: Mishpatim
“Finders keepers, losers weepers” is a well known (if morally questionable) children’s adage. But while this argument might win a dispute on the playground, it’s not a ...
Toward Shabbat: Yitro
It is chilling to read this week’s parashah in light of the earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria this week: "Now Mount Sinai was all ...
Toward Shabbat: Beshalah
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- By Kiana Davis
On an evening in June of last year, Judith, a BJ volunteer, and I had the privilege of welcoming a Guatemalan refugee family to NYC, ...
Toward Shabbat: Bo
I was 7 years old when I decided I wanted to be Jewish. That’s right. This rabbi began her life as a Catholic. The epiphany happened ...
Toward Shabbat: Va-era
This past weekend, I was blessed to be with our BJ Teens in Arizona, learning about immigration in America. In our first moments of the ...
Toward Shabbat: Shemot
I distinctly remember the first time I picked up a book of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s in the library of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayehi
Last Saturday night, my family and I brought in the new secular year with 4,000 of our closest friends. At 11:30 PM, the four of ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayigash
One of the most powerful Jewish rituals for me, is the ritual of immersing in a mikveh—a Jewish ritual bath made of “mayyim hayyim” (living ...
Toward Shabbat: Miketz
The World Cup final between Argentina and France this past Sunday in Qatar was spectacular, exhilarating, and electric. Definitely not for the faint of heart. ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayeshev
On a good night, in the midst of our despair trying to rock a crying baby back to sleep at 3:00 AM, either my husband, ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayishlah
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- By Aaron Leven
Every month I’m fortunate to meet with a “spiritual director”—a practitioner who is trained to guide people through questions pertaining to their spiritual lives. No ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayetze
Have you heard? Shabbat is all the rage. Just this week, a New York Times article reported on what appears to be a growing trend ...
Toward Shabbat: Toledot
In the past few weeks, we’ve lived through antisemitic rants and conspiracy theories dominating news headlines, exposing the pervasiveness and rise of Jew hatred in ...
Toward Shabbat: Hayei Sarah
Throughout our Back Home Shabbaton, I was struck not only by the diversity of stories that our members brought into our synagogue but also the accents ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayera
An old, popular Spanish saying, “Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres”—“Tell me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you ...
Toward Shabbat: Lekh Lekha
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- By Aaron Leven
At one stage or another in our lives, we’ve all experienced the feeling of being stuck in a rut. We may look around at our ...
Toward Shabbat: Noah
Shabbat wasn’t always a part of my life. It was when I was a child: Growing up, Shabbat was a constant, a day joyfully distinct ...
Toward Shabbat: Bereshit
When my children and I walked home from shul on Simhat Torah, I felt exhaustion and relief deep in my bones. It’s been three years ...
Toward Shabbat: Shelah Lekha
I celebrated becoming a Bat Mitzvah with a Minha service surrounded by family, friends, and a community of people, many of whom had known me ...
Toward Shabbat: Beha’alotekha
As I come to the end of my time as a MTM Rabbinic Fellow at BJ, I’ve been reflecting on what it means to be ...
Toward Shabbat: Naso
Some of the most vivid Jewish memories from my childhood took place in the social hall of Lower Merion Synagogue. Every week, after we sang the ...
Toward Shabbat: Bemidbar
The very first thing we learn about us humans in the opening chapter of Genesis is that every person is made in the image of ...
Toward Shabbat: Behukkotai
On Wednesday morning I received an alert with new information about the mass shooting in Uvalde: The 19 children and two teachers that were murdered ...
Toward Shabbat: Behar
In some ways, last Shabbat was like every other Shabbat I have celebrated with You. It was framed by the light of the Shabbat candles ...
Toward Shabbat: Emor
On a family trip to England many years ago, we visited the famous hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace. At one point I became separated ...
Toward Shabbat: Kedoshim
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- By Kobi Cohen
At the age of 74, the State of Israel is still considered to be a young nation. Israel and its people have accomplished much, and ...
Toward Shabbat: Aharei Mot
As we transitioned out of Passover this past week, I felt a bit of the letdown that comes from going from a time of freedom ...
Toward Shabbat: Shabbat Pesah I
I have a vivid memory of being in my childhood house the morning of Erev Pesah (the night before Passover). The windows were slightly open ...
Toward Shabbat: Metzora
The rabbi of my childhood was a man of the “Greatest Generation.” He would ascend to the pulpit to give a sermon, ceremoniously take off ...
Toward Shabbat: Tazri’a
Heschel articulated the devastation of 1943 in the following terms: "There has never been so much guilt and distress, agony, and terror. At no time ...
Toward Shabbat: Shemini
The central event of Parashat Shemini is the death of Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu. As a traditional understanding of the story goes, God kills ...
Toward Shabbat: Tzav
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, my Jewish community in Philadelphia was very active in the Soviet Jewry movement. In school we learned about refuseniks, and ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayikra
Last Shabbat started like every other Shabbat for me, with the lighting of candles. However, unlike most Shabbatot, I was not standing with my family. ...
Toward Shabbat: Pekudei
On Purim, we are invited into a topsy turvy existence of our own making, putting on masks and reveling in the hidden. In a much ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayak’hel
For two years, the pandemic has forced us to disconnect from the lives we used to live. We are all fatigued, and discouraged by the ...
Toward Shabbat: Ki Tissa
Fearing that Moshe will never return from the mountain where he speaks with God, the Israelites fashion a golden calf—combining their resources in much the ...
Toward Shabbat: Tetzaveh
It’s true that football is a brutal sport. But if you reduce its attraction to being a modern equivalent of gladiator events at the Colosseum, ...
Toward Shabbat: Terumah
The physicality of welcoming Shabbat each week during “Lekha Dodi” is a magical moment and one in which many of us can relate to. There ...
Toward Shabbat: Mishpatim
One of the most humbling aspects of the rabbinate is accompanying people through the literal or figurative valley of the shadow of death. In my ...
Toward Shabbat: Yitro
What are we supposed to do with so much fear? We are in the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, frustrated and beyond tired of ...
Toward Shabbat: Beshalah
This reading of Miriam’s prophecy cast the concept of “prophecy” itself into a new light for me. Rashi's take on Miriam’s dance caused me to ...
Toward Shabbat: Bo
Two years ago this week, on January 5, 2020, I joined a very special club. For most of its existence, this club was fairly exclusive. Women’s ...
Toward Shabbat: Va-era
Tonight, we usher in the New Year on Shabbat, which means that my ritual countdown in front of the tv will be replaced by another ...
Toward Shabbat: Shemot
We human beings can feel profoundly vulnerable at times, wounded by what life foists upon us and what we inflict on ourselves. Sometimes, we feel ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayehi
There were a few minutes within one of the concerts—a strange work based on mystical texts set to a combination of Persian music with rock, ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayigash
This week, we entered into the month of Tevet. This is a time of year when many people struggle with feeling down, perhaps more so ...
Toward Shabbat: Miketz
Getting to Yes, the “bible” of negotiation by Roger Fischer and William Ury, has sold over 2 million copies since its publication in 1981. It’s ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayeshev
Pirkei Avot teaches us: "Who is wealthy? Those who are happy with their portion." We live in a consumerist society that constantly reminds us that we ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayishlah
We have labored each in our own way to find a way through this pandemic. We’ve learned. We’ve mourned. We’ve been afraid. We’ve been humbled. ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayetze
It has been a darker week since daylight saving time ended last Sunday. Night now comes so early, and it lasts longer than day. And ...
Toward Shabbat: Toldot
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- By Kobi Cohen
Three shots were fired at Yitzhak Rabin’s back on the Saturday night of November 4, 1995, ending the Israeli prime minister’s life. Rabin was assassinated ...
Toward Shabbat: Hayei Sarah
When my grandfather died in the spring of 2003, I was nearly 10,000 miles away. Privileged with an opportunity to travel in Southeast Asia, I ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayera
The midrash teaches that in her laughter after the birth of Yitzhak, Sarah “increased the light of the luminaries.” Rashi explains that she laughed on ...
Toward Shabbat: Lekh Lekha
As the children pray, they look intently at us as they try to follow the motions while they sing. “Shema”—we place our hands next to ...
Toward Shabbat: Noah
We don’t hear much of Noah’s worry in this week’s parashah. In fact, he doesn’t say one word from the moment he was chosen to ...
Toward Shabbat: Bereshit
For many years now, I have been quite obsessed with the origins and the story of my family. Before arriving in Argentina in the early ...
Toward Shabbat: Ki Tavo
Borne out of this narrative is an ethical directive: to protect and care for the stranger, the parentless, and the widow, because the Israelites were ...
Toward Shabbat: Shoftim
Ready or not, the month of Elul is upon us. The High Holy Days are just around the corner... It is the season to reflect ...
Toward Shabbat: Ekev
When I first began to pray regularly several years ago, the second paragraph of the Shema—which we read this week in Parashat Ekev (Deut. 11:13-21)—was ...
Toward Shabbat: Vaethanan
A week after reading Lamentations by flashlight, sitting, grieving, and feeling the depths of despair, the Shabbat of Comfort comes just when we might need ...
Toward Shabbat: Devarim
As Shabbat comes to a close, we will move to mourning as we mark Tisha Be'Av, the ninth day of the month of Av. On ...
Toward Shabbat: Mattot-Mas’ei
Like the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, I have now completed an incredible journey. One where the path was not always paved, where I ...
Toward Shabbat: Pinhas
Nina and I recently celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, just weeks before our oldest child Aaron’s marriage. As a country, we will be celebrating Independence ...
Toward Shabbat: Balak
As I reflect on the profound privilege to serve as a Rabbinic Fellow here at BJ these past two years, I find myself struck by ...
Toward Shabbat: Hukkat
Beginning in the mid 1800s and to this day, June 19th...is a day when African Americans celebrate their independence and freedom and we all celebrate ...
Toward Shabbat: Korah
Is there really a place for me in the Jewish community? This question emerged because Max had recently come out as non-binary, identifying as neither a ...
Toward Shabbat: Shelah Lekha
How can one integrate such a violation of morality, systematic dehumanization, and the eradication of 6 million of our people and the instability of living ...
Toward Shabbat: Beha’alotekha
We are able to begin the process of seeking those second chances for korban—and yet, we may feel a sense of being adrift as we ...
Toward Shabbat: Naso
My parents did not start blessing me on Friday nights until I was in high school. What inspired the change? The “aha” moment for them ...
Toward Shabbat: Bamidbar
On Sunday evening we will begin our celebration of Shavuot. May they be quiet days of rest, of breath-taking and reflection, and of receiving the ...
Toward Shabbat: Emor
The celebration of Lag Ba-Omer turned into a devastating tragedy at Mount Meron in Northern Israel when dozens were killed and injured. We pray for the healing ...
Toward Shabbat: Aharei Mot-Kedoshim
“Rise up, Judge of the earth, give the arrogant their requital. How long shall the wicked, Adonai, how long shall the wicked exult?”—Psalm 94:2-3 Tuesday, ...
Toward Shabbat: Tazri’a-Metzora
I have always said that I would not be the person I am today, had I not been born and raised in New York City. ...
Toward Shabbat: Shemini
I sat surrounded by a cloud of hundreds of other kids and adults, each wearing all white, singing and praying the words of poet Haim ...
Toward Shabbat: Tzav
My favorite Pesah joke is the oldie but goodie that goes like this: How many psychologists does it take to change a lightbulb? Only one...but the ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayikra
Who will ever forget the fear of the Angel of Death, roaming outside? We worked hard to elude him, and still do, by isolating, masking, ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayak’hel-Pekudei
Early in my rabbinate I met with a bat mitzvah girl who declared she was born at the wrong time. The roaring ‘20s would have ...
Toward Shabbat: Ki Tissa
I often think of Shabbat as a homecoming at the end of my week. Just as after a long day of work or school or ...
Toward Shabbat: Tetzaveh
As Shabbat approaches, Purim 5781 draws to a close; and thus, so too do we close out one full cycle of haggim in the era of ...
Toward Shabbat: Terumah
Exactly one year ago today in the Jewish calendar, at 7:04AM on the 7th of Adar, I received the following text from my childrens’ school: ...
Toward Shabbat: Mishpatim
משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה When the month of Adar arrives, we increase in joy. —Babylonian Talmud Ta'anit 29a When the month of Adar arrived last ...
Toward Shabbat: Yitro
In these winter months, being ready to welcome in Shabbat is not always an easy feat. As the sky rapidly darkens through the late afternoon, ...
Toward Shabbat: Beshalah
When my husband Jeremy first mentioned the idea of using cloth diapers for our daughter, I laughed. After quite a few back and forths, a ...
Toward Shabbat: Bo
It seems hard to believe that, a little over two weeks ago, a mob of insurrectionists stormed the Capitol intent on overturning an election, subverting ...
Toward Shabbat: Va-era
For the past ten weeks, an incredible tension has been eating at my heart. In the days immediately following November’s election, Biden’s call for unity ...
Toward Shabbat: Shemot
In stark contrast to 2020—a year of horror and despair—2021 is a year full of hope. We have arrived, at long last, to the end ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayehi
Last Wednesday began like most school days this year. I woke up, davenned, made breakfast for my kids, and then walked them to school accompanied ...
Toward Shabbat: Weintraub
One of my favorite Hasidic tales is about the wandering brothers, Rabbi Elimelech of Lizensk and Rabbi Zushe of Anipoli. The two brothers were often ...
Toward Shabbat: Miketz
Today we mark the final day of Hanukkah, and in doing so, mark our final holiday in the cycle of a year of hagim at ...
Toward Shabbat: Hanukkah
Last January, I began studying Daf Yomi, a seven and a half year journey through the entire Babylonian Talmud, at the rate of one page ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayishlah
7:45AM- I turn my computer on and sign into Zoom. I put on tallit and tefillin and recite a couple of quiet prayers in preparation ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayetze
The Talmud (Berakhot 54b) declares that there are four types of people who must offer thanks to God with a thanks-offering and a special blessing: ...
Toward Shabbat: Toledot
My husband, Jeremy, and I both agree that, whenever we move into a new apartment, it doesn’t quite feel like home until we have hosted ...
Toward Shabbat: Hayei Sarah
This past Shabbat, my family and I were called to our kitchen window by the sound of crowds cheering, cars honking, and noisemakers of all ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayera
This was said to be the election of a lifetime, the most consequential and fateful of presidential elections in a very long time, maybe ever.
Toward Shabbat: Lekh Lekha
The first time I saw a sky full—really full—of stars, I was 19 years old. I was in the tiny mountain village of Las Delicias ...
Toward Shabbat: Noah
Each year, when my Tuesday lunchtime class starts up again, it finally feels like the long holiday season has come to a close and “regular” ...
Toward Shabbat: Ki Tavo
Since I first came to Kabbalat Shabbat at BJ several years ago, I have been moved by the music, tefillah, and spirit of your community, ...
Toward Shabbat: Ki Tetze
Who are the vulnerable in our community who need to be surrounded with care and love? You know who they are—the sick, the elderly, the ...
Toward Shabbat: Shoftim
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- By Peter Geffen
After these many months of communal and personal isolation, we will soon greet a new Jewish year. These weeks before the High Holy Days are ...
Toward Shabbat: Re’eh
By this time next week, we will have begun the month of Elul that leads us into Rosh Hashanah. There are many ways for us ...
Toward Shabbat: Ekev
On Tisha Be’Av, it is customary to read from the Book of Lamentations...This week, as I read about my people’s past, my mind began to ...
Toward Shabbat: Vaethanan
Honestly, listening to the voices of the next generation has not been easy for me this summer. I don’t necessarily feel that they are listening ...
Toward Shabbat: Devarim
In high school, I decided that I was going to become shomeret Shabbat, to keep Shabbat in a more traditional way. When I made this ...
Toward Shabbat: Mattot-Mas’ei
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- By Neil Kurshan
A few months ago we had canceled our plans for what would have been our first Pesah in Israel. We were aiming to bring our entire ...
Toward Shabbat: Pinhas
The global pandemic—four months old—and our country’s ingrained racism—400 years old—have together exposed the frailty and dysfunction of our society. Our healthcare “system”, our hyper-capitalist ...
Toward Shabbat: Hukkat-Balak
Two hundred and forty-four years ago this weekend, the Second Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence, freeing the 13 colonies from subordination ...
Toward Shabbat: Korah
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- By Abi Weber
To be clear, Judaism is a religion of structure and discipline, and protecting this rigidity provides necessary stability for many. But Judaism is also a ...
Toward Shabbat: Shelah Lekha
I am so grateful for the relationships fostered by this community that has taught me that a shul does not stop at the sanctuary walls ...
Toward Shabbat: Beha’alotekha
Would I have reacted in the same way had she not been Black? I wondered. Was it the color of her skin that caused an ...
Toward Shabbat: Naso
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- By Rabbi Felicia Sol and Denisha Green
I am not living in a Black body and therefore today I want to give voice to one of our beloved staff members Denisha Green, ...
Toward Shavuot
As I sit writing this, I am aware that this is my last Shavuot as one of your rabbis, that this is in fact my ...
Toward Shabbat: Bamidbar
In a time of unprecedented “normals” and as new paradigms emerge, we need the Torah to awaken our imagination, creativity, and courage.
Toward Shabbat: Behar-Behukkotai
For better and for worse, the last few months have challenged many of our assumptions and disrupted many of our behaviors.
Toward Shabbat: Emor
During this period of blurry time, I am finding Shabbat more precious and necessary than ever.
Toward Shabbat: Aharei Mot-Kedoshim
I found the wisdom within this week’s Sefirat haOmer practice to be particularly helpful in navigating and leaning in to my life as it is ...
Toward Shabbat: Tazria-Mezora
My son Aiden turned double digits last week. The number celebrates his ten years of life and mine as a parent. It’s hard to believe.
Toward Shabbat: Shemini
To save human life is to do God’s work. You—doctors, nurses, technicians, EMTs, nursing home aides, pharmacists—are God’s messengers in the battle between life and ...
Toward Shabbat: Tzav
Like many, I have been obsessively following the news since the coronavirus pandemic exploded. My attention is split between two places: the United States and ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayak’hel Pekudei
No, this museum visit was not a look back to yesterday; it was a mirror of today. And it was brutal to meet its gaze, ...
Toward Shabbat: Ki Tissa
Whether we gather virtually or in person, we remain a community committed to prayer and study and caring for one another.
Toward Shabbat: Tetzaveh
I have just returned from a trip to Israel and Berlin. It was important to me to pray all three daily services—shaharit, minhah and arvit—with ...
Toward Shabbat: Terumah
I’ve been thinking a lot about these soundtracks and what it means to be a religious person amidst all the noise. Not only because there ...
Toward Shabbat: Mishpatim
No, this museum visit was not a look back to yesterday; it was a mirror of today. And it was brutal to meet its gaze, ...
Toward Shabbat: Yitro
We all tell single stories, at various moments and for various reasons. Sometimes we don’t know any stories other than the one we are telling—like ...
Toward Shabbat: Beshalah
For many of us, the need to address climate change seems obvious and yet, all too often, the crisis seems slow-moving and distant from the ...
Toward Shabbat: Bo
The events marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz came to a close this week... With this momentous anniversary behind us, a new ...
Toward Shabbat: Va’era
Last Thursday, 27 BJ eighth and ninth graders, four BJ educators, and I traveled to Arizona to study issues of immigration with Tzedek America.
Toward Shabbat: Vayehi
As you read this, I am probably somewhere on I-95, sitting on a bus with our 7th graders. We are headed to Washington, D.C., for ...
Toward Shabbat: Vayigash
At a moment of intense polarization within the Jewish people, the practice of Daf Yomi pushes us to see Jewish learning and tradition as a ...