Remembering how All Jews Stood at Sinai
In just a couple of days, we will celebrate Shavuot, the holiday that marks our receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.
How to Restore a Torah to Holiness
Recently in my congregation, while holding fast to the Torah, we didn’t hold fast enough – literally – and it accidently fell to the floor during a Shabbat service.
Judaism Teaches: Question Authority, Think for Yourself
In his greatest hour, Moses showed us we have nothing to fear. The tablets of God were broken, but we remain intact. Our task, too late for my patient but perhaps not too late for us, is to break the spell of Sinai. Only then, following Moses’ example, can we begin the real work of hammering out what constitutes a moral society.
Reducing Our Food Waste This Shavuot
On Shavuot, as we celebrate receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai, we also celebrate the beginning of the harvest and the connection between the earth, God and us. Receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai includes accepting the teachings and values of the Torah that guide our daily lives.
#Pulse, Sinai
How do we at once throw our arms
around our children,
up in protest,
and open to our neighbors?
How do we speak in one breath,
New Round of ICE Raids, Same Concerns
In early January 2016, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initiated a series of operations to round-up and deport undocumented mothers and children from Central America.
The Forever of Us: A Poem for Shavuot
How We Can Embrace Those Struggling with Severe Depression
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to consider how we can help prevent and treat mental illness – including the agonizing scourge of clinical depression. It’s also the month leading up to Shavuot, when we read the Book of Ruth. The story of Ruth and Naomi includes powerful lessons about how relationships and community can restore and sustain those facing difficult times.
Revelation: It’s Not What It Seems to Be
On Shavuot we celebrate receiving the Torah. But, how are we truly to understand divine revelation?
This is the Moment to Commit to a “Covenant With Our World”
As Reform Jews, we are called, like the generations before us, to build partnerships across lines of difference to advocate for and engage with the oppressed of our day.