by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 9, 2022 | Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, God, Elul, Marriage and Relationships, Mourning, Repentance
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Dani is a member of our small synagogue and every Shabbat, when we gather together after morning prayers, he jumps up and gives a speech on the weekly Torah portion. It isn’t nice to say, but his speeches drive me crazy. It always seems like...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 4, 2022 | Psalms, Ninth of Av, God, Messiah, Mourning, Redemption, Temple
Reading is magical. Reading can take you places you have never been and show you things you have never seen. It is almost as good as being there and reading fanatics know that in many ways, reading is better than watching a movie. It goes deeper. People who read the...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 28, 2022 | Bible Study, Ninth of Av, Faith, Freedom, Good and Evil, Mourning, Prayer, Temple
On June 29th, 2022, Israel lost a great light last month when Rabbi David Weiss Halivni passed away in Jerusalem at the age of 94. A Professor of Talmud and recognized as a brilliant scholar, he served as the head of the Union for Traditional Judaism’s...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 15, 2022 | Bible Study, Mourning, Temple
My son had his blanky; the blanket he used in the crib when a baby. Over the years, we tried to replace it but to no avail. Now that he was ten years old, we had given up on replacing the now-tattered piece of cloth. I tried half-heartedly to protest when I saw him...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 14, 2022 | Bo, Passover, Mourning, Redemption
The Passover Seder is a generational affirmation, a transmission of the story of God’s miraculous redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt. In this context, the Seder plate, as the centerpiece of the Seder table, is a visual aid, containing symbolic foods that are...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 13, 2021 | Tenth of Tevet, Kings, Ninth of Av, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Mourning, Repentance, Temple
The tenth day of the Hebrew month Tevet, which comes one week after the last day of Hanukkah, is a minor fast day. The fast begins at dawn and ending after sundown. The fast is in mourning of the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia...
