RJ Blog

by Arlene Sarah Chernow On May 13, I will watch my youngest daughter become Rabbi Ilana Mills, joining her sisters, Rabbi Mari Chernow and Rabbi Jordana Chernow-Reader in the rabbinate. Like most mothers (and fathers, too!), I have always hoped that my daughters would find fulfilling, meaningful work that matches their skills and talents, and provides opportunities for them to grow intellectually and emotionally. This coming Sunday, on Mother’s Day, I will see these hopes fulfilled. It may seem hard to believe, but when I went to college, women chose majors in just a few areas—teaching, nursing, and social work.  [...]

Confirmation is a reaffirmation of all that Congregation Or Ami is about. I wish you could have been there. On Friday night, 7 Or Ami teenagers – Jessa Cameron, Libby Coufal, Nathan Fried, Ben Ginsburg, Dakota Keller, Marissa Meyer, and Peter Young – stood on our bimah to articulate those values and experiences which bind them to our Jewish tradition and community. Listening to them speak, my eyes misted over. I remember watching each one of them grow up, some since they were infants. We rabbis and cantor have the unique privilege of walking the journey with our teens as [...]

Since we started reading Vayikra, I’ve been waiting for a chance to argue with my friend and teacher, Rabbi Billy Dreskin. We’ve worked together for years, and we often disagree. But we always learn from each other. His recent d’var torah is a perfect example. Billy is absolutely right in saying that many of us are looking for a closer relationship with God, and that there are only two prayers for closeness in the entire Siddur. But he’s also wrong. This past year, as a result of some difficult times in my life, I’ve started davening two or three mornings [...]

The URJ’s iWorship listserv is a forum where laity and clergy hold online discussions on matters of worship, ritual, liturgy, and the governance issues and administrivia that pertain to life in the synagogue sanctuary. Truth be told, we sometimes digress and find ourselves cluttering our colleagues’ inboxes with subject matter that is off-topic, until one of our cadre of relevance vigilantes reminds us that this latest subject matter, whatever it may be, is not part of our job description.

Of all the parashot in all the Torah scrolls in all the world, that one – Sh’mini – had to walk into my life this year – not once, but twice. Because our Reform observance does not include the extra days added by the Sages for communities outside the land of Israel, we spent an extra week on this portion. Much of the content is focused on kashrut. But the parashah includes as well one of the few narrative events of the entire book of Vayikra (Leviticus) – the tale of the death of the two older sons of Aaron. [...]

by Rabbi Jordi Schuster Battis My heart is in the east and I in the uttermost west – Yehudah Halevi (c. 1141) In this way all Israel will be turning their hearts towards one place. – Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 30a In talking about Jewish prayer, we often follow in the steps of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and make a distinction between keva, the fixed and routine aspects of liturgy, and kavanah, the intention and directionality we put behind our words. We can use this dichotomy in thinking about the spaces in which we pray, as well: the keva of the [...]

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 Billy Dreskin A rabbi is invited to spend a weekend at a synagogue he’d served years earlier. Running into Goldberg, who’d been on the synagogue’s board of trustees back then, the rabbi was surprised to learn that his old friend wasn’t spending much time at temple anymore: He asked, “Goldberg, what happened? You used to be there when the doors opened!” “Ach! Years back, the temple went in a direction I didn’t like. Some of us got together and made a new synagogue,” Goldberg replied. “Is that where you worship now?” asked the rabbi. “I’m afraid not. A few [...]

by Bill Page I have wanted for some time to write a little essay about the daily miracles prayer in Mishkan T’filah (pp. 198-203).  It is just the right prayer for Shabbat, when we are meant to rest and recall what our all too busy lives are really supposed to be about.  But I have also tried to incorporate these beautiful words into my daily schedule, less successfully than I would like, and I have had the best luck recalling these prayers for life’s daily miracles while riding my bicycle. These prayers help us to recall how much we take [...]

Recent seasonal discussion on the URJ’s iWorship list-serv has centered, naturally, on Passover rituals, and certainly for no other holiday do we give so much ritual attention to food Bob Korngold got the conversation started with his reminiscences of a seder he conducted in Japan when he was in the military, for which the Jewish Welfare Board supplied gefilte fish, matzo, and charoset (plus Haggadahs).  That stimulated Mike Rankin to ask if any other family besides his had a Pesach tradition of serving beet preserves with matzo brei or matzo pancakes, like his great aunt Jennie made, from a recipe she [...]