RJ Blog

by Rabbi Micah Lapidus I recently attend a concert by the unparalleled Israeli musician, David Broza. First and foremost, any guitarist who has never heard of or heard David Broza play guitar needs to check him out ASAP. There are absolutely no words to describe his passionate and spiritual virtuosity. As with all great music, there was much to reflect on both within and beyond the music.

by Vicky Glikin Music plays a critical role in society as an integral part of social and political history, but more importantly as intrinsic to the total human experience, noted Irene Heskes, a historian and author specializing in sacred and secular Jewish music. This observation is especially apt when considering the music of the Holocaust, a historical event which left the worldwide Jewish community forever altered and which we, individually and communally, are still struggling to process and understand. While the repercussions of this unparalleled Jewish catastrophe are overwhelming, music offers a window through which we can speak about the [...]

by Yehudit Werchow “וַאֲפִילוּ כֻּלָּנוּ חֲכָמִים כֻּלָּנוּ נְבוֹנִים / כֻּלָּנוּ יוֹדְעִים אֶת הַתּוֹרָה / מִצְוָה עָלֵינוּ לְסַפֵּר בִּיצִיאַת מִצְרָיִם” Even though all of us are wise, understanding and knowing of the Torah, we  are still obligated to tell the story of our Exodus from Egypt. My Haggadah is a musical one. The themes of Pesach inspire so many of my favorite Israeli musicians, and every year another musical Midrash is added to my Pesach collection. This music is one of the most precious gifts that Israeli life and culture contribute to the Jewish tradition. Israeli rock guitarist, songwriter and singer [...]

by Cantor Ellen Dreskin I had the honor and pleasure of serving as Scholar in Residence just this past Shabbat for the URJ Early Childhood Educators’ Kallah – what a treat, I hope for everyone involved.  We wrestled with God, studied Torah, tackled Talmud, sang, and worshipped – I think we were all surprised at the impact of our time together. We began with Talmud study – no kidding!  Early Childhood Educators took to it with ease, sharing with each other how, if each one was a letter in Torah, what our individual crowns were, and how we understood the [...]

The first I ever heard of Debbie Friedman was to see her name printed on the inside covers of my synagogue’s prayer books, naming her the author of the modern Mi Shebeirach tune. Growing up, that was all I ever knew of her – just a name above the words on a page. I grew up attending a Reform congregation, but I did not grow up “in the Movement,” per se. My mother and I were members of a small congregation in Northeast Ohio where there was no organized youth group, no NFTY or BBYO. There were just six students [...]

If you attended the URJ’s recent Biennial convention, you were, as always, treated to an array of terrific Jewish music from the likes of David Broza, Josh Nelson, Julie Silver, Dan Nichols, Joe Black, Noah Aronson, Michelle Citrin, Peri Smilow, and a host of others.  These dedicated and talented musicians kept our toes tapping, our hands clapping, our bottoms dancing and our voices singing from one end of the Biennial convention to the other. Better than reading my words about the music, though, watch a few minutes (or the whole megillah) of the Kabbalat Shabbat Song Session to see and [...]

by Cantor Regina Lambert-Hayut A few years ago, at an oneg, I was talking to an interfaith prospective family.  The non-Jewish mother wanting to raise Jewish children but was frustrated.  She told me the following story: her husband had grown up in a congregation where his beloved childhood rabbi was still serving the congregation.  They went to see the rabbi hoping he would marry them.  The rabbi told them that he didn’t believe that they should get married since Jews should only marry Jews.  If the bride were to convert, he was happy to officiate.  If she didn’t, he wouldn’t [...]

by Cantor Alane Katzew(originally posted in Ten Minutes of Torah) There are so many ways to transition in life. We have our daily rituals that accompany us from waking to work and back again to our home life. Once we bid Shabbat goodbye at Havdalah by extinguishing the braided candle in wine at the moment of separation between holy and mundane, we often step back onto the treadmill of life until Shabbat comes once again on Friday evening. The shift from our work-a-day world back to the world of the sacred can prove a bit more challenging. We can bring [...]

by Cantor Alane Simons Katzew The Biennial for the Union for Reform Judaism is akin to the High Holidays in your congregations. Every last detail, from the fine tuned preparation of the Rabbi and Cantor to the plan to move cars in and out of the Temple parking lot safely, must be attended to with diligence and concern for the underlying sacred responsibility of the tasks at hand. When it comes to planning for worship at the Biennial, there are lots of moving parts. And just imagine for a moment that when you arrive, there is not a sanctuary; there [...]

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 [...]