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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.

Commanding Joy When the World is a Mess? (P. Terumah)

2/15/2026

Nobody needs me to confirm that vast swaths of our world burn like a raging dumpster fire.

Judaism is about reality-based reality. We do not pretend away trouble or turn a blind eye. We certainly do not fiddle while Rome burns.

Yet even so – precisely so – the Jewish calendar encodes a radical and wise spiritual practice starting now, linked to this week's Torah portion, that at first blush can seem oddly un-real and ill-fitting when the world is a dumpster fire.

The practice is one of Judaism's sometimes overlooked superpowers: elevating joy amidst all.

Justice and a World Blind and Toothless (P. Mishpatim)

2/8/2026

In a world of passive aggression, physical and emotional aggression, and mounting societal outrage, there can be instinctive allure to Torah's "eye for an eye" maxim about justice.

Except it doesn't mean what the millennia made it out to mean. What principles should guide us in addressing bad behavior? When – if ever – does "like" merit "like"?

What You Missed: Mid-Winter 2026 Edition

2/8/2026

Shabbat services – Our new model alternates between upbeat services with Torah, and more contemplative experiences. Our January 23 Shabbat featured Rabbi Rachel Barenblat and Torah at the precipice of Egyptian liberation. Our February 6 contemplative service began with a community dinner, then a Tu B'shevat-themed ascent including Cantor Debbie Friedman's "You Are the One" (2005) – a poignant setting of Rabbi Nahman of Breslov's "Prayer to Be Alone" (1801).

Learning – Our Liturgy Series is completing the evening service: next up is the morning service in preparation for b'not mitzvah of Nancy Heller and Sherrill Cropper. In SoulSpa we reached Sinai: next up are society rules and spiritual mysteries that continue to make us "us."

"The Way They Will Walk" (P. Yitro)

2/1/2026

When I was a Harvard graduate student lo many years ago, person-sized Biblical words about law looked down on me every day from atop one of the academic buildings.

They look down on me still – and on you, and on our country.

Rabbi's Corner: February 2026 – Count to Three, and We Go Free

1/25/2026

It happens every month: the moon waxes and wanes, marking planetary time quietly above our heads.

It happens every year: three full moons set our course from winter to spring, from concealed to revealed, from bondage to liberation.

Those three full moons now begin. Ready or not, spring is on its way – and I, for one, am ready.

The Bittersweet Fickleness of Faith (P. Beshallah)

1/25/2026

Even the most faithful among us have times of forgetting, doubting and disbelieving. Lifelong learning, gratitude and perspective suddenly can fly out the window.

Even the most faithless among us have times of belief that challenge rationalism, atheism and all other -isms. Clutched certainty of disbelief, and with it clarity about how life is, suddenly can fall like a castle of sand.

Our bittersweet fickleness of faith, faithlessness and everything in between is eminently human. What if we lean into them – all of them?

<<Previous

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)

Commanding Joy When the World is a Mess? (P. Terumah)

Justice and a World Blind and Toothless (P. Mishpatim)

What You Missed: Mid-Winter 2026 Edition

"The Way They Will Walk" (P. Yitro)

Rabbi's Corner: February 2026 – Count to Three, and We Go Free

The Bittersweet Fickleness of Faith (P. Beshallah)

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