Rabbinic Blog

Third Spaces: Safe to Be, Safe to Become (P. Tazria-Metzora)

4/12/2026

Spiritual community is a vital Third Place – not home or work, nor totally public – that can help anchor, comfort and shape us. Like the Boston pub in "Cheers," spiritual community ideally is "where everybody knows your name / And they're always glad you came."

We might say likewise of secular clubs, volunteer groups and hangouts becoming less common in the digital society. But spiritual community is unique in how it calls us to be authentically and fully ourselves, warts and all – and then evolve.

Did God Do That? (P. Shemini)

4/5/2026

Why do we believe or not believe? Why do our beliefs change? There are countless reasons. You have yours.

One reason, I've come to sense, is how religious and spiritual concepts are conveyed – which, for most of us, requires translation from Hebrew.

The thing is, translations aren't value-neutral, which can tilt much of what we learn and come to understand. Over the centuries, it can make a huge difference spiritually.

Come see how it can impact what we hold most dear or keep furthest at bay.

Rabbi's Corner: April 2026 – Events of Identity, Remembrance and Presence

4/1/2026

Passover re-launches the Jewish cycle of identity, remembrance and presence. Passover's end brings Yizkor for our deceased loved ones. The following week brings Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), then days later comes Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Israel Independence Day).

Shir Ami will commemorate each of them, along with Refugee Shabbat and Holiness Shabbat.

Mark your calendars. As spring unfolds, it's time to go public in community and solidarity.

When the Liberation Began (Passover 2026)

3/29/2026

As we have for many centuries, the Children of Israel will gather at Passover seders to celebrate the liberation of bygone days.

When we gather with family and friends, we would do well to ask what liberation is, and when the ancient liberation began.

Why? Because the answers bear pivotally on who we are and what Passover asks of us now.

No Easy Walk to Freedom (P. Tzav)

3/22/2026

In olden days, during the week leading into Passover, rabbis gathered folks to huddle about the strictures of keeping kosher for Passover.

Instead, let's huddle about the freedom that we're about to celebrate.

Let's huddle about the Passover that rekindles the eternal flame of our identity and social- justice mission to spread freedom to others who cower in dehumanizing want and fear.

Let's huddle about how, especially now, freedom means bringing light to dark places.

Drilling Under Ourselves (P. Vayikra)

3/15/2026

Time and again, the world reminds us that we all are completely and utterly in it together.

Still we forget. Circumstances get the better of us. Reactions get the better of us. Leaders turn us off (or worse). We turn away from each other.

It's like drilling a hole in our shared lifeboat.

Knock 'Em Alive (P. Vayakhel-Pekudei)

3/8/2026

Recently our community honored "National Day of Unplugging," an idea that emerged from a book entitled "The Sabbath Manifesto."

Our conversation explored Shabbat as a mitzvah, a commandment, and as a choice – a purposeful making space – shaped by centuries of collective experience and wisdom about good living.

For some of us, the notion of commandedness –being obligated – rubs the wrong way. For some of us, commandedness evokes a traditionalism we don't buy and a power we don't accept.

It's a subject worth our focus, because at stake is nothing less than life itself.

The Western Wall is Not a Golden Calf (P. Ki Tisa)

3/1/2026

I hadn't planned to write a D'var Torah this week. Rather than write a new D'var Torah this week, I planned to repost last year's teaching about the Golden Calf in civil society. But developments in Israel compel me to speak – clearly and bluntly – to affirm Judaism's core values of pluralism and gender equality. At stake are Israel's identity and the Western Wall's spirituality itself, lest each risk becoming just another Golden Calf.

Rabbi's Corner: March 2026 – Plugging into Grief, Joy, Anxiety and Hope

3/1/2026

As I write these words, Israel and Iran are at war, and our community has sustained losses.

And, after a brutal-weather winter, climatological spring is starting at last. The joy of Purim opened a runway to the renewed liberation of Passover.

Jewish spirituality is about how we see what we see, stretching to be more and holding it all. And in service of calibrating our vision and our hearts, Jewish life is about choosing what we plug into – and sometimes selectively unplugging to heal our vision and our inner circuits.

The Sign on Your Forehead (P. Tetzaveh)

2/22/2026

Know it or not, each of us wears a sign on our forehead.

It tells others who we are. Even more, it tells others who they are.

We'd all be far better off if we remembered the sign we wear on our foreheads.

<<Previous

Third Spaces: Safe to Be, Safe to Become (P. Tazria-Metzora)

Did God Do That? (P. Shemini)

Rabbi's Corner: April 2026 – Events of Identity, Remembrance and Presence

When the Liberation Began (Passover 2026)

No Easy Walk to Freedom (P. Tzav)

Drilling Under Ourselves (P. Vayikra)

Knock 'Em Alive (P. Vayakhel-Pekudei)

The Western Wall is Not a Golden Calf (P. Ki Tisa)

Rabbi's Corner: March 2026 – Plugging into Grief, Joy, Anxiety and Hope

The Sign on Your Forehead (P. Tetzaveh)

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