Category: Community

Learning The Love That Matters Most (P. Aharei Mot-Kedoshim)

4/19/2026

There are things we learn from our parents.

There are things we learn from first encounters with the sacred.

There are things we learn only by going out into the world.

There are things we learn by walking a mile in others' shoes.

There are things we learn by overcoming the impulses of retribution and hatred.

Truly loving our neighbor as ourselves is the spiritual culmination of them all, the gift that only rough-and-tumble life experience can grant.

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.

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.

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.

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.

From Rabbi David – An "Oneg Shabbat" Model Starting in January

12/21/2025

If you've been a regular participant at Shabbat services this autumn, perhaps you've begun to notice subtle shifts in tone and pace.

Shir Ami is diverse in many ways, so I've been slowly experimenting with different approaches to Shabbat. My purpose has been to honor the whole of our diverse community, authentically, and also calibrate the palette of "feel" over time.

Here's to make this subtle shift more explicit and invite us to co-create different kinds of Shabbat experiences together, starting in January.

<<Previous

Learning The Love That Matters Most (P. Aharei Mot-Kedoshim)

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

When the Liberation Began (Passover 2026)

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)

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

From Rabbi David – An "Oneg Shabbat" Model Starting in January

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