RJ Blog

by Rabbi Jonathan Biatch Editor’s Note:  This post is the second of two about Congregation Emet VeShalom.  Read the complementary post. The double air-kiss; you’ve gotta love it!  It is a European custom becoming more widespread in Israel, and it’s quite contagious.  You’ve seen it: once on the right side, then once on the left.  By the conclusion of my first worship service at Emet VeShalom, I had received many such kisses of warmth and friendship.  I quickly learned that the relatively small size of Emet VeShalom says nothing about its welcoming spirit, or its obvious passion, or its members’ [...]

by Sharon Mann Editor’s Note:  This post is the first of two about Congregation Emet VeShalom.  Read the complementary post. Reform Judaism and religious pluralism, which are taken for granted in the United States, are not axiomatic in Israel. As a member of Emet VeShalom—a Reform congregation in Nahariya, a peripheral area of Israel eight miles from Lebanon’s border—I know maintaining a non-Orthodox congregation is fraught with challenges. At present, one major challenge facing ours is that we do not have a rabbi serving as spiritual leader of our community. Our members are facing this challenge by stepping up and [...]

Here are just a few of the recent stories from across the webosphere that speak directly to (and about) Reform Jews. What Jewish stories have you been reading recently? Leave a comment and let us know! “Modern-Day Rabbi Must Be CEO, Teacher, and Spiritual Leader at Once,” Forward Are rabbis the new CEOs? Anne Cohen reports that “expectations have changed.” Rabbis are now required to read a spreadsheet as well as the Gemara. They need to be accessible, media-savvy public speakers; business-oriented entrepreneurs; fundraisers; program generators, and in touch with popular trends. To prepare rabbinical students for the challenges ahead, [...]

by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat I love the excited buzz in the synagogue before Shabbat morning services when one of our kids is going to be called to the Torah as b’nai mitzvah. I love the eager, nervous energy I feel emanating from the family. The parents, caught between the mundane organizational details they were worrying about yesterday and the growing awareness that today is something different, a different kind of time. The younger sibling, if there is one, rolling their eyes but also realizing that this is going to be them someday. I love standing outside in the field behind [...]

For too much of Jewish history Jewish women did not count. Consider the opening of the Book of Exodus: “Eleh sh’mot b’nai Yisrael – These are the names of the children of Israel.” (Exodus 1:1) The text then goes on to name only the male children of Israel: Reuben, Simeon and Judah… but there is no mention of the female children of Israel. There definitely were many female children of Israel who were there but the opening of Exodus doesn’t see fit to mention them. The Biblical text seems to be telling us that: “girls don’t matter. Pharaoh also believes that [...]

By Blu Greenberg In every generation, Jews have understood the significance of the Revelation of Torah in their lives. We have studied and written and taught about the meaning of Torah and its relevance to contemporary circumstances. With the publication of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary in 2008, the teachings of women scholars and Jewish professionals on the significance of Torah in their lives had not been shared in such a dedicated work. The “Contemporary Reflections” section in The Torah: A Women’s Commentary “enable us to hear women’s voices that reckon with divine revelation….each essay shows the significance of Torah as [...]

by Karen Humphrey In the last few weeks, our Torah portions have dealt a lot with the design and construction of the Tabernacle. In reading commentary on these portions, one of the things that caught my eye was the way the four cardinal points of the compass were used in the Tabernacle. I began to wonder how that related to the directions of the Native American Medicine Wheel and the Chinese Ba Gua. 

Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs and NFTY President Evan Traylor delivered a joint D’var Torah during Saturday morning T’fillah at last weekend’s NFTY Convention and Youth Engagement Conference, which run concurrently. An abridged text and full video of their address follows; you can also find the full text of Rabbi Jacobs Friday night d’var Torah, “On Top of the World,” here.

This d’var Torah is the winner of the Wendy Blickstein Memorial D’var Torah Competition, which was established in memory of Wendy Blickstein, a former member of NFTY’s Mid-Atlantic Region whose years were cut far too short because of cancer. The Blickstein family established this competition for aspiring teen writers to share their words of Torah with our NFTY Convention community and beyond.

Beginning this week Visit URJ’s new site For Torah haiku You might have read about the URJ’s new website, ReformJudaism.org, which includes it’s own blog. As RJ.org transitions to a sort of “insider’s blog” about congregational life and Movement activity, the new website is the right place for material like The Torah In Haiku. So, starting with this week’s entry on Yitro, you’ll now find my quick takes on the weekly Parsha at its new home. After you’ve gotten your haiku fix for the week, be sure to take some time to explore the new website and blog for a [...]

by Cantor Ellen Dreskin Not many of us stop to think about the role of storytelling in our lives. Everything that happens to us is sifted through our own filters, our own history, our own set of circumstances, and settles in our hearts and our brains as a story – our story. If Torah or liturgy or Jewish tales speak to us, it is probably because we feel the truth in these Jewish sources as it intersects with our own experience. How many of us remember our desire to hear the same bedtime stories again and again and again, and [...]

It’s Shabbat Shirah Time to read Shirat HaYam The song of the sea Who is like You G-d? Majestic in holiness Doing miracles    

by Rabbi Ron Symons There are certain verses that were placed as foundation stones of the Jew I aspire to be.  Growing up in Temple Emanu-el of Lynbrook, NY, under the leadership of Rabbi Harold Saperstein z’l, I learned that “You (plural) shall be holy, for I, Adonai your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19) serves as the foundation for the sacred community in which I grew up and towards which I lovingly labor to build on a daily basis with hundreds of members of our community. My professors at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem and New York taught me that [...]

Turn rods into snakes? Pharaoh’s men can do it, too. Plagues will be required   Exodus 7:10-13 Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh. They did exactly as G-d had said. Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh, and it became a viper. Pharaoh summoned his scholars and magicians. The master symbolists were able to do the same thing with their magic tricks. When each one threw down his staff, [the staffs] all turned into vipers. Aaron’s staff then swallowed up their staffs. But Pharaoh remained obstinate and did not pay attention to them, just as God had predicted.   Image by Robyn Jay [...]