Displaying 1 - 10 of 14
Our Name, Our Legacy
This moment when people gather to prepare a eulogy is always powerful. At first, they don't know where to begin, what to include, what to leave out. Do we write our own legacy? Not in words but by our character, by our deeds, by our gifts, by our way of walking through the world.
Inspirational Leadership
Perhaps more than all the patriarchs, Jacob is the one that struggles most with the invisible. He dreams, he envisions, he wrestles with unnamed. He sees, looks into the eyes of his nemesis, his enemy, and sees the face of God. His journey is a spiritual wandering towards discovery and self-awareness. He sees into the future and ultimately is a uniting force that actualizes that future.
Fear Is the Opposite of Love
The first word for fear is also the word for awe. As we gaze upon the mystery of the heavens, the boundary between awe and fear is ever so slight. We are awe struck by the vast unknown of God, and we are aware of our own smallness. We are afraid of our vulnerability at the same time we are in awe of the grandeur and the blessings that abound.
The Window of Noah’s Ark
We will never know the historicity of this great flood. Other cultures write of devasting floods, most notably the Babylonian narrative of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Angel Spotting
I sat by the water, moving from sun to shadow, listening to the sound of the slight breeze creating a ripple effect. In the sky, an occasional seagull, butterfly of cinnamon color, or airplane would fly by. The world was in constant motion, and yet I sensed a stillness
The Wellspring of Heaven and Earth
Abraham is promised that through him we will become a great and prosperous nation, as vast as the stars that light up the heavens in the dark of night and as numerous as the sands as far as the eye could see. But the covenant could only continue through marriage and offspring. So, as we read last week in Hayyei Sarah, Abraham sends his servant to search for a wife for Isaac among the tribe.
Listening to Our Calling
The spiritual journey is not a destination but rather it is a manifestation of our life’s purpose. It is now and here that we can listen to the quiet beyond the quiet.
Stories We Tell: What Did You Leave on The Tables?
If somebody left something important at your house, would you give it to anyone else? That’s the question Mrs. Gold asks her daughter to encourage her to learn a life-long lesson. Find out what was left, and why this question contains such a crucial message, in this story retold by Cantor Ellen Dreskin.
Audio file
Stories We Tell: The Greatest Gift
It’s time for the princess to get married, and the king and queen want to make sure that she marries her best match. There are three brothers in the running, and in order to decide which one will marry the princess, the king and queen set up a contest: the brother who gives the princess the greatest gift will become her husband. The brothers travel far and wide, and the oldest finds a magic carpet, the middle brother finds a magic mirror, and the youngest finds a special apple. Which gift is best? Rabbi Matt Gewirtz retells the story, which is adapted from The Magic Pomegranate: A Jewish Folktale by Peninnah Schram.
Audio file
The Tension Between Hubris and Humility
In its brief 40 verses, Parashat Nitzavim immediately presents us with tensions between confidence and condemnation, promise and punishment, and ultimately, between humility and hubris. Throughout the text of these two compact chapters—Deuteronomy 29 and 30—Moses consistently oscillates between inspiring the Israelites toward their future and forewarning them about their inherent (and perhaps inevitable) flaws.