Rabbi Paul Kipnes

Rabbi Paul Kipnes is the spiritual leader of Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, CA. He serves as rabbinic dean at URJ Camp Newman in Santa Rosa, CA, and as vice president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Rabbi Kipnes and his wife Michelle November co-wrote Jewish Spiritual Parenting: Wisdom, Activities, Rituals and Prayers for Raising Children with Spiritual Balance and Emotional Wholeness (Jewish Lights). He also co-edited a national CCAR Journal issue on New Visions for Jewish Community. Rabbi Kipnes serves on the Rhea Hirsch School of Jewish Education clinical faculty at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. His writings can be viewed on his blog, Or Am I? and he tweets at @RabbiKip.

waves crashing into each other

A Prayer for After Elections

Rabbi Paul Kipnes
There was that moment at the Red Sea when our people despaired like never before. Looking behind, the people saw an enemy coming for them. Looking ahead, the waters seemed ready to swallow them up.
Silhouette of a woman standing alone on a desert sand dune against a sunset
Torah Study

We’ve Been Here Before: Spiritual Wisdom for Enduring Coronavirus

Rabbi Paul Kipnes
 March 15, 2020

The coronavirus-compelled communal self-quarantine felt vaguely familiar: Here we are bamidbar (back in the wilderness), reliving Numbers, when Miriam becomes infected with a scaly, white, and highly contagious skin condition. But we’ve gotten through it before, and we will now, too.