Rabbi’s blog

Happy Rosh Chodesh, Temple Sinai,

Tonight is the new moon, or rosh chodesh of the Hebrew month of Sh’vat. Rosh Chodesh is a time for giving thanks, and for putting out our hopes and prayers for the coming month, that as the moon grows, we move from conflict to peace, from danger to safety, from poverty to satisfaction, from fear to security. Let that be our prayer this new moon.

Also in this email:

– MLK Events
– Kaddish for Sheldon Adelson

Hello Temple Sinai,

Pray for the welfare of the government, for were it not for it, everyone would swallow his neighbor alive. Pirkei Avot 3:2

….anyone who is able to protest against the transgressions of one’s townspeople and does not, is punished for the transgressions of the townspeople… Talmud Shabbat 54b

It is odd when an event is shocking, and at the same time utterly expected and predictable. Watching the images from the Capitol today was shocking, but it was less the shock of surprise, and more the stomach-sinking shock of realizing the thing you had feared is now actually happening in front of you.

Hello Temple Sinai,

In the Jewish world, Rosh HaShanah has become our official “New Year” from which we count our calendar, but our tradition actually has four new years, each counting different periods, much like we have ‘calendar year’, ‘fiscal year’, and ‘contract year’. The oldest of our new years was Pesach, and spring was called the ‘first season.’ That makes sense in an agricultural society, particularly one in northern Israel that has a temperate climate and spring starts the growing season. There was also Tu Bi Sh’vat, the New Year for counting the age of Trees…

Hello Temple Sinai,

My father loved Christmas. He would take us for long drives to look at the lights, randomly blurting out “ho, ho, ho!”. Many years a lit tree twinkled in our living room window. For him Christmas was an American holiday, and he loved being American…

Hello Temple Sinai, This week’s Torah portion, Vayishlach, (Genesis 32:4-36:43) is among the most compelling of the many stories the Hebrew Bible has given to world literature. It is the story of Jacob. Having worked decades for his father-in-law Laban to marry Leah and Rachel, he now makes his way by foot with his family […]

Hello Temple Sinai, Tov L’hodot – it is good to give thanks! Happy Thanksgiving! I know it is strange this year not being able to be together with friends and family in the ways we are used to, but if we are able to read this, it means we are alive; being alive is a […]

Hello Temple Sinai, Some thoughts on Hanukkah, Anti-Semitism, Racism and the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Yesterday was Rosh Hodesh Kislev, the new moon that marks the beginning of the month of Kislev, the month of Hanukkah. Hanukkah is a beautiful holiday that in Jewish terms is fairly recent, being only a bit shy of 2200 […]

Hello Temple Sinai, On Yom Kippur, we read from the book of Deuteronomy, “I am setting before you this day a blessing and a curse.” The original meaning is that we need to choose one or the other, but these past weeks, it has often felt like the two come together like two oceans and […]