RJ Blog

by Rabbi Larry Karol “Do you see people who are skilled in their work? They will serve before royalty; they will not serve before obscure people.” -Proverbs 22:29 When we came upon this verse in our congregational Proverbs study group, I was taken aback for more than a moment. There is something in this verse that points to greatness, but it seems to do so with a tinge of elitism. One could interpret this verse to mean that people do their work well only if they end up serving the most important leaders in society, who have greater value than [...]

by Stacey Zisook Robinson On the first Sunday of the first day of religious school, I challenge my seventh grade students: How do you have a conversation with God in the 21st century? Do you have a conversation at all? How do you come to God when life is good? More, how do you come to God in times of anger or sadness or despair, when all you want to do is curse at God? Being a fan of symmetry, on the last Sunday of the last day of religious school, I asked them: “What is it that connects you? To Judaism, to [...]

by Stacey Zisook Robinson I am a Jew by choice. And before you ask – both my parents are Jewish. One of my earliest memories is of being with my grandfather, sheltered by his tallit, as he gave the benediction to his congregation on Rosh HaShanah. We celebrated the major Jewish holidays – Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, Chanukah, and Pesach, anything else being an esoteric holdover of a bygone age – mainly with a meal. Occasionally, we even made it to synagogue.

by Stacey Zisook Robinson When my son was born, I cradled him against my heart, arms wrapped gently yet surely around his small and fragile body. I would stand, holding him, our breaths mingled, our hearts beating in an elegant call and response, one beat to the next, and I would sway, a slow and gentle side-to-side rock that lasted for the eternity that exists between heartbeats. I could feel his body relax into the motion, like oceans, like drifting, like peace. I loved the simplicity of that rhythm, the warmth of him, the smell of his newness and his [...]

by Mark Wendel My Rabbi motions me to come up to the bemah. I am reading a Psalm in front of the congregation. The week before we were worshiping in a church I had actually looked forward to being in a church – the first time in decades. I remember Dad reading Psalms in front of our congregation back when I was a Christian. Because of Dad I am now part of a religion again, I never even cared to talk to him about religion back when I was anti-religious. Last year we had plenty to talk about. This year [...]

Did you know that when you breathe you are connecting to God? Or you could be if you were aware of what you were doing. Really. As part of our experimental Jewish Spiritual Journey Facebook Group, one participant asked me, “Does the word SHEMA have something to do with our breath?” I love the question. Here’s how I answered him: Shema absolutely has to do with the breathe because it twice invokes the name we call God, the four letter name Yud Hey Vav Hey which we often pronounce as Adonai. Adonai is just a euphemism for Yud Hey Vav [...]

by Jeannette GrossTemple Isaiah, Lafayette, CA When my Dad, Ken Harris, was dying two years ago, we were fortunate he had enough time and inclination to plan his own funeral. Since he had a very eclectic religious life (born and raised Jewish, a bar mitzvah, a wedding co-officiated by a rabbi and a minister in 1950; now on the board, in the choir and very active in the church where my Mom has been a member her entire life; very involved in multiple Masonic organizations; still a proud Jew in his heart and soul) it would have been difficult for [...]

I had a difficult childhood. I joined a synagogue when I was 30, and I attended services fairly regularly, but I hated God. For me, God was the Old Man in the Sky, distant and remote, and constantly demanding praise. How could I pray? How could I thank a God who had given me my particular childhood? When I was 40, I moved to Sacramento. My son was in fifth grade at the time, and my daughter was 2. Every Sunday morning, I would drive my son to religious school – it seemed like it was 100 miles from our [...]

by Michael Rankin, M.D.Capt., MC, USN (Ret) Yom Kippur, 1965, I was a Navy medical officer stationed aboard a destroyer off the coast of Vietnam.  The ship’s captain had promised us an hour or two to hold a service Kol Nidre evening, but late in the afternoon the ship went to battle stations.  An Australian base camp south of Hue was under attack from a North Vietnamese unit, and we were to fire around the perimeter of the camp to drive them away. The firing continued all Kol Nidre night and through most of the next day.  After much loss [...]

by Lori Freedman Temple Beth Shalom, Austin, TX During the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe, it is customary to go to the cemetery to pay respects, or as I say, ‘visit’ those you love. This year, during this time, I was fortunate to be in the same city where my dad is buried.  December will mark the 25th anniversary of my father’s death. I mentioned to my husband that, thinking back on that awful time and now living in the Austin Jewish Community, I can see what community means at a time like that. I did not have the [...]

by John E. Hirsch, PhD I wrote this drash in honor of (or is it in memory of) the fiftieth anniversary of my bar mitzvah on 21 September 1957 at Temple Beth Israel in Macon, Georgia. At not quite 13 – my birthday was the next day, the 22nd -  it was, for so many reasons, one of the great defining moments of my life. Bar mitzvahs were relatively new at our very old classically Reform congregation – founded by German Jews in 1859. That Shabbat morning, Temple Beth Israel had both a new Rabbi and its first air conditioning [...]

by Barbara Shuman Ever since I was a young adult, I have felt called to wrestle with Jewish texts and ideas. I yearned to understand how to live a good life in relation to others, to experience the transcendent mystery we call God, and know the profound joy of  “aha moments.”  I believed that meaning could be found not only in my college psychology textbooks, but in the sacred texts of Judaism. I also believed these answers would be found outside of myself, in the hundreds of books that lined the shelves of my home library, in the numerous classes [...]

by Janine PrestonTemple Or Rishon, Orangevale, CA Anyone who really, really knows me was not surprised to receive the announcement of my conversion to Judaism. When I very seriously told my two best friends from college about my decision last fall, they started to laugh. “Janine,” they said, “you have been talking about this since 1985 — we would only have been surprised if you had decided not to make this official!” I was first introduced to Judaism by a boyfriend back in college. I started studying about this religion that made him so happy, that created a framework for [...]

by Stephanie Seiberg Temple Emanuel, Kensington, MD When I decided to convert I wondered often if I would ever really feel Jewish? I never could have anticipated that the death of my non-Jewish father would be the event that would take me there. I had married a Jewish man several years before my father died. Prior to marriage, we agreed to raise our children Jewish, but at that point I considered myself a non-religious person and had never really considered conversion. Events in my life, including my father’s illness, over the years led me to feel a void with my [...]