Dear Temple Beth-El, Tonight we will enter into the holiest day of our calendar year–Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Before I get to my yontif message, a request: If you have a shofar and would like to blow it to help us end Yom Kippur, please bring it with you to Ne’ilah services! We Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, We have finally arrived at the end of 5785, and in just a few short hours will welcome 5786. What a year it has been for us all! We’ve seen both great, even existential challenges for our People both here in the U.S. and in Israel, and major transition for our synagogue Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, This is an exciting Shabbat. We are prepped and ready for a festive and joyous Back-to-Shul Barbecue tonight, with tables and chairs set up out on our patio and grills ready to fire. We can’t wait to celebrate our Family Shabbat and welcome so many of our people to Temple Beth-El! We Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, As we continue further into Elul and begin getting back to our “regularly scheduled programming” (weekly Shabbat morning services resume tomorrow morning), and as I continue, along with the Cantor, to plan for the High Holy Days, I have been meditating on my journey through this last year. 5785 was an impactful Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, Tonight we welcome our first Shabbat of the month of Elul, and begin our season of Teshuvah in earnest together. There is a custom of sounding the shofar daily throughout the month of Elul, so if you are a Shofar blower, now is a great time to start practicing and re-strengthening your Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, Believe it or not, Summer is winding down and Elul is almost upon us. Next Monday is Rosh Chodesh Elul, and with the start of the month of Elul come our various modes and methods of preparing for the High Holy Days. Elul is a month of introspection and self-evaluation, or, as Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, This Shabbat we’re reading Parashat Eikev, which contains the Torah verses that make up the second paragraph of the V’ahavta–the paragraph that had not, until the recent publication (2015) of Mishkan HaNefesh, the URJ’s newest High Holy Day machzor, ever appeared in a Reform Jewish prayerbook. The paragraph did not appear because Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, Sadly, I’ll miss spending Friday night with you in person as I need to be home to take care of my family, all of whom are under the weather with a virus. Marnie, kiddos, I’m sending you a refuah shleimah! Parashat Va’etchanan contains Deuteronomy ch. 6, which famously is the location of Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, We are beginning the book of D’varim this Shabbat–a book that is almost entirely made up of an extended speech by Moshe recapitulating the Israelites’ journey in the Torah and the many mitzvot they have been commanded to observe. The Vilna Gaon taught in his commentary on the opening of the book Continue Reading »
Dear Temple Beth-El, Yesterday, after many hours of testimony, the New Jersey General Assembly State and Local Government Committee voted in favor of advancing A3558—a bill adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. If the bill is ultimately signed into law New Jersey will become the 38th* (*a correction from my previous message) Continue Reading »
