RJ Blog

by Craig Taubman How do we keep the introspection of the High Holy Days going throughout the year? Ironically it might happen if we don’t think too much. Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “A Jew is asked to take a leap of action rather than a leap of thought.” Ours is a religion that asks us to act, to do, maybe before we even necessarily understand what we are doing. We recently completed more than six weeks of introspection, thinking, and rethinking. Perhaps the best way we can keep the spirit of the holy days alive is by taking a break [...]

At the end of this month, another summer full of pool parties and outdoor barbecues will fade away as we enter the time of reflection. In the Jewish faith, we traditionally dedicate the 29 days in the month of Elul to studying and preparing for the coming High Holy Days. The time is supposed to challenge us to use each day as an opportunity for growth and discovery. For the past seven years, Jewish musician Craig Taubman and his group Craig & Co. have collected short stories, anecdotes, and introspections from some fascinating people, distributed in their daily Jewels of [...]

During the year I spent studying in Jerusalem as a rabbinic student, it was impossible to escape the upcoming High Holy Days. Even if one were not at all observant, each day of Elul, the month preceding the Days of Awe, brought an auditory reminder. During Elul, at daily morning services the shofar is blown. While this tradition reminds us that the shofar will be blown on Rosh HaShanah, it also is a wakeup call of sorts. We are reminded of the upcoming Days of Awe and urged to begin preparing for them. Our liturgy, too, offers us reminders and [...]

by Abigail Pogrebin(Originally posted on Jewels of Elul) I seek light by seeking lightness.  So much of life can be freighted, fretted.  There is a discipline in finding the buoyancy in at least one moment every single day.  I’ve had to learn lightness-how to find meaning, levity, even exuberance-in noticing the simplest seconds. There’s work in that: discovering how the tiniest joys can lift and shimmer: A friend on a porch. My family of four reading together in the same room. Errands with my daughter. Central Park on a scooter with my son. Wine with my husband on a rare date. [...]

by Zion Ozeri(Originally posted on Jewels of Elul) For good or bad, digital communication has revolutionized and transformed our lives. We are now not merely spectators, but active participants empowered to reflect what we see and feel.  In the past, only a privileged few had the ability to influence mass media and movements.  Nowadays, amateurs and casual users have the ability to contribute content and impact society. The seminal founders of photography found true meaning through everyday encounters. Alfred Stieglitz photographed his lovers, Henri Cartier-Bresson tried to freeze a “decisive moment.” Ansel Adams studied nature; for Louis Hein it was [...]

by Dennis Shulman(Originally posted on Jewels of Elul) I lost my vision gradually throughout my childhood. In 1968, when I went to college, I was totally blind. The years since have been blessed with great people, with myriad challenges, and with remarkable opportunities. During these years, I have also been blessed with a story from the Bible, to which I have turned many times to remind me that seeing-true seeing, spiritual seeing, the seeing that matters-is seeing beyond. In the final chapter of Deuteronomy, we are on Mount Nebo. Moses is about to die. God shows Moses what he would [...]

by Nancy Abramson(Originally posted on Jewels of Elul) “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.  You make me happy, when skies are grey…”  Many years ago, when my children were young, I used to sing this folk song. I wanted them to believe that each of them was my sunshine, the focal light of my universe.  And I also needed to reassure and comfort myself in the simplicity of their being my shining suns. In just a few weeks, as we usher in the Kol Nidrei service, we will chant the words of Psalm 97, ”Or zaruah latzadik-Light is sown for [...]

by Bradley Keywell(Originally posted on Jewels of Elul) I am often asked, “What makes a great entrepreneur?”  My answer describes someone with an explosive combination of ideas, vision, drive, persistence, and something nearly impossible to describe–a spark, a light.  Our world advances because of human beings who are willing to take risks in pursuit of their ideas and their vision, who possess the “light” that allows them to turn their vision into our reality.  I do not think it is a coincidence that, of all the inventions of mankind, the light bulb is the symbol we equate to ideas and [...]

by Idan Raichel(Originally posted on Jewels of Elul) To understand the light, we must understand the dark.  For me, the dark is what people experience when they have lost their way on the long road of life. It happens to all of us. We lose our center and feel we have nothing to lean on.  We do not see the way to the future and our very presence feels fragile as we lose our connection to our roots. But it is important to note that at these times, we find ourselves in darkness, not blackness. In the darkness, we can [...]

by Tamar Elad-Appelbaum(Originally posted on Jewels of Elul) It was dawn. My mother and I watched silently as the sun rose on a new day, the seventh day of my brother’s Shiva. My brother, Nadav Elad, had been an IDF soldier in one of the elite units of the paratroopers. We should have hated the sun, lighting up a world that seemed so broken to us now. Yet my mother gently laid her eyes on the view unfolding through the light, and with deep gratitude gave thanks for its existence. Light, she said, had witnessed Nadav’s presence in this world, as [...]

by Najeeba Syeed-MillerOriginally posted on Jewels of Elul “God is the Light of the Heavens and the Earth.” Qur’an 24:35 This verse of the Holy Book of Muslims has been elucidated upon byMuslim scholars for generations. My explanation is decidedly morepedestrian. I write in the month of Ramadan, withholding myself fromfood, drink, gossip and speaking negatively of others. My tongue ispracticing peace in this most blessed of months. These days even as aprofessor teaching at a theological school, no discussions resonate morewith me than my conversations with my five-year-old.

by Cecil L. Murray(Originally posted on Jewels of Elul) Where can we who walk in darkness find brighter light?  I suggest we look no further than to the preacher/poet, John Newton.  He was a former slave trader who saw the light.  Today he is best known as the composer of the hymn, Amazing Grace! Again and again in the Bible, we read the invocation, “Let me find grace in thy sight, O Lord.”  Find grace?  Perhaps most of us wait for grace to find us. And often it does.  When grace finds us, we come to see God’s sight is not [...]

by Rabbi Steven Lowenstein(Originally posted on Jewels of Elul) Yehi Or-Let there be Light. L is for LightThat I give and receiveBy teaching and sharing with othersAs we search for what we believe. Truth is: We all possess light, different kinds of light. Sometimes we share that light, sometimes we hide it, even from ourselves. Sometimes it’s hard to access…yet, every single day we face a remarkable challenge to let that light, our light, shine forth. Bringing light into the world is as powerful a declaration of moral purpose as any act a human being can undertake. We learn in [...]

by Rabbi Jack Riemer(Originally posted on Jewels of Elul) On the day they were created, Adam and Eve sinned and were expelled from the Garden. As the sun set and the world grew darker they said, “Because of our sin, the world is ending.” They stayed up all night, praying to God. When the sun rose at dawn, relieved they said, “There is a path that the sun always follows. It goes down in the West and comes up again in the East. Perhaps it will do this every day for as long as we live.” Adam offered a sacrifice [...]