Rabbi C. B. Souther

Rabbi C. B. Souther, originally from Portland, OR, devotes herself to stretching the tent of the Jewish community to create space for those on the margins and to build and normalize a culture of vulnerability and compassion. 

Torrah and Kippah
Chol HaMo-eid Sukkot

A Time for Building Up

D'Var Torah By: Cantor Elizabeth Sacks
Each year on Sukkot, we read these famous words of Ecclesiastes ( Kohelet): “A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven. …a time for tearing down and a time for building up.” ( Kohelet 3:1,3). To speak of building during a holiday dedicated to erecting a temporary structure seems fitting. And yet, the order the ideas in this verse is at odds with our Sukkot experience. Surely, “a time for building up and a time for tearing down” would align more closely with sequence of the holiday. So why this order? And what exactly are “we tearing down and building up”?
Torrah and Kippah
Tzav

Heeding the Call to Commandment - and to Obligation

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Elyse Goldstein
Parashat Tzav continues the Levitical listing of sacrificial rituals begun in last week's parashah and discusses how to present the offerings, what the various kinds of offerings are, and the anointing and ordination of the priests. The parashah also explains the Levitical duty to keep a perpetual fire burning on the altar to kindle what we know today as the ner tamid — the eternal light over synagogue arks that reminds us of this continual fire.