分类: Community

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.

When the Turkeys Get Us Down (Thanksgiving)

11/23/2025

Jewish life and Thanksgiving both invite us to count our blessings with gratitude. Jewish life also is about being real, and sometimes the reality is that the turkeys get us down.

Here's some holiday food for thought about what to do if we, or someone we love, is struggling to find gratitude this Thanksgiving.

Rational Spirituality Beyond Belief (P. Toledot)

11/16/2025

Believers might readily embrace the spiritual prospect of asking God a question and receiving a response (whether with a knowing or feeling beyond self, or an inner sense within).

But how about disbelievers? In a rational world of left-brain logic, can suffering and brokenness drive a rational response that is spiritual? Indeed they can, and the source is poignant.

Rabbi's Corner: November 2025 – Making a 'Yesvember' Community

11/2/2025

After months of Jewish intensity, November plateaus in a month without Jewish holidays.

In this month's Rabbi's Corner column, Rabbi David reflects on what this seasonal shift can make possible for Shir Ami, and all Jewish communities.

The choices we make now about "doing Jewish" – not just "being Jewish" – will tell us much about what we value, and who we are.

Sick Visits (P. Vayera)

11/2/2025

When the going gets tough, some of us have an instinct to pull in – to self-isolate, even conceal our tough times.

Maybe we resist drawing attention to ourselves or our difficulties. Maybe we feel that stoicism and privacy are the best parts of valor. We cleave to normalcy like it's nobody's business.

For deep reasons, Jewish spiritual life calls us against these instincts. We have duty to visit and help, and we have a duty to allow it. Here's why.

Rabbi's Corner – October 2025: From Sukkot Into Peak Autumn

10/5/2025

R. David re-issues his High Holy Day sermons and covers Shir Ami's October highlights, including Sukkot Shabbat (Oct. 10), Rabbi David's Sukkot Party (Oct. 12), online Yizkor for Shemini Atzeret (Oct. 13), the launch of a feminist year of SoulSpa (Oct. 18), and the return of our regular musical Shabbat services (Oct. 24).

The Mitzvah of Joy (Sukkot)

10/5/2025

To many moderns, Sukkot is a strange holiday. Our ancestral agricultural days that inspired the harvest festival are long gone. The threat of scarcity that inspired celebration for bounty feels distant in our relative affluence. And yet we are commanded – commanded! – to be joyful.

What is joy if it's commanded, and what kind of command is that?

Our Circle Dance – Sermon for Kol Nidre 5786 (2025)

10/1/2025

For all of modern society's focus on individual rights and choice, even in the internet age, we still are carbon-based creatures who utterly need each other. Community has long been one of Jewish life's superpowers, but today hangs in the balance, buffeted by tides of social change and amnesia about who we really, truly are.

For Whom We Stand (P. Ha'azinu)

9/28/2025

On this far end of Yom Kippur, we remember in our bones that all life goes the way of all life. It is true that all life ultimately dies, and equally true that all that dies once lived. We also know that in very real ways, all that died lives on in us, through us, in the air we breathe, in the values we uphold.

We who dared to touch death on Yom Kippur rise into new life and new joy as we near Sukkot (Season of our Joy). And then the cycle begins again – exactly as before, and utterly changed.

Our Sovereign Power – Sermon for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5786 (2025)

9/22/2025

What do you make sovereign in your life? What truly rules you? Are you totally satisfied with your answer? If you're human, then probably not – and the Power of Creation imbues us with power to choose, to re-center, to change. After all, we are made "in the divine image," with sacred attributes. If God can create and transform, so can we.

We must start here, with our sovereign powers of choice and change. Otherwise, the travails of the heart and travails of our world can seem beyond our power to repair.

We can do it. We have 3,500 years of tools for wise living and societal repair, and our ancestors' strength courses through us. We are #StrongerTogether.

<<Previous

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

When the Turkeys Get Us Down (Thanksgiving)

Rational Spirituality Beyond Belief (P. Toledot)

Rabbi's Corner: November 2025 – Making a 'Yesvember' Community

Sick Visits (P. Vayera)

Rabbi's Corner – October 2025: From Sukkot Into Peak Autumn

The Mitzvah of Joy (Sukkot)

Our Circle Dance – Sermon for Kol Nidre 5786 (2025)

For Whom We Stand (P. Ha'azinu)

Our Sovereign Power – Sermon for Erev Rosh Hashanah 5786 (2025)

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