Does listening to a podcast count as study? Is it OK to say the blessing if I’m listening to commentary without reading or hearing the Torah portion?
Listening to the podcast definitely counts as Torah study. It’s an opportunity to learn a bit of Torah and start to think about the weekly Torah while also incorporating some modern-day thinking into the traditional message.
How do Reform congregations commemorate Kristallnacht?
Kristallnacht, which literally means, “the night of broken glass,” occurred on the night of November 9, 1938, and marks the beginning of the Holocaust. On Kristallnacht, Jewish homes, synagogues, and businesses were destroyed by the Nazis and the streets in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe were covered with glass from the shattered windows of synagogues, Jewish homes, and businesses.
Do Reform Jews Believe in the Messiah?
In the Jewish prayer book, the siddur, there are references to an “end of days”: the Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt, the dead who were righteous will be resurrected, and a figure known as the Messiah, or in Hebrew the Moshiach, will restore Israel to new-found glory.