Last month, in the midst of staffing the Union for Reform Judaism’s Biennial Convention in San Diego, I ran into a friend of my mom’s.

The most important declaration of faith in our tradition is the Sh’ma, which means “Hear!” or “Listen!” When I chose my titles for my High Holiday sermons this year, every one included the word “listening.” This was, in part, an outgrowth of my congregation’s

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha'olam, pokei'ach ivri'im
Blessed are you, Adonai, Sovereign of the universe, who opens the eyes of the blind.

I chant this prayer every time I say the morning blessings.

It happens that this year the Days of Awe align with Suicide Prevention Week.

Sometimes people think I’m exaggerating when I say that before I learned Hebrew, Yom Kippur could wreck me.

Everyone is a judge. We judge the guilt or innocence of an alleged criminal based upon facts gleaned in the first three seconds of seeing his face on the evening news.

As we turn to thoughts of a new year and a new start, here is a pledge to refrain from texting while driving. Texting while driving is responsible for a quarter of all car accidents today, and is six times more dangerous than drunk driving.

If, as the Talmud tells us, the blasts of the shofar are meant to remind us of crying, (Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 33A – specifically of Sisera’s mother – but that is another subject!), then I would offer the following.

There are times when we are like

On Sunday, October 6, 2013, Congregation Rodeph Shalom will partner with the Basser Research Center for BRCA for an educational program about BRCA gene mutations, which are related to breast, ovarian, and other cancers. This post is based on the d’var Torah delivered by Rabbi Jill Maderer on Friday, July 12, 2013.

A piece of my soul died when we decided that my son Ben’s autism would necessitate a reexamination of a conventional bar mitzvah service.