Category: Festivals

Omer Week 7 – Presence: Awareness and Sovereignty

6/3/2024

The Omer journey that began at Passover (liberation) leads through this seventh and final week to Shavuot (revelation).

Along the way, we delved into inner capacities and character traits, aligned with the mystical (kabbalistic) sequence borne of the medieval era. Week by week, we've made our way through
love (hesed), strength (gevurah), balance (tiferet), resilience (netzah), splendor (hod) and
foundation (yesod).

It all funnels into this week: presence (malkhut), bringing our full selves into the world so that we can receive Torah anew with our full selves.

About Our Shavuot Together – June 11 and June 12, 2024

6/2/2024

Shavuot at Shir Ami will be sweet and high, deep and meaningful, fun and provocative, cheesecakey and perhaps a bit seductive.

How can one Jewish holiday be all of that, while hiding in plain sight? Here's a nuts and bolts of what we'll do together this Shavuot on June 11 (erev Shavuot) and June 12 (culmination and Yizkor).

How to Receive Torah (P. Bamidbar)

6/2/2024

The approach of Shavuot, our festival of receiving Torah anew, cues us to ask what it means to receive Torah at all, much less anew. How does one receive Torah anyway. And whether or not Torah was given at Sinai thousands of years ago, how to we receive anew what we already got... or are we to receive something else?

These are no idle or mere academic questions. They go to the heart of who we are, and how we walk in the world. Put another way, they go to the heart – full stop.

Life Upright and the If/Then of Spirituality (P. Behukotai)

5/26/2024

Why live spiritually? Why live as a Jew – or, for that matter, in any community or system of faith or doctrine? These are questions for the ages, ones that modernity places in particularly sharp focus.

They're worth wrestling with, especially now.

On This Year's Shir Ami Community Seder (2024)

4/15/2024

By Rabbi David Evan Markus

"What will this year's Passover seder be like?" It's a question I've heard asked many times (sometimes asked directly to me, other times not). Here are some coming attractions in the form of Four Questions (and answers).

Find the Cost of Freedom (Passover 2)

4/11/2024

The freedom we celebrate at Passover is "ours." Each year, we ritually spill a drop from our cups of joy for each of the Ten Plagues, to symbolize that we cannot drink a full cup of joy when our freedom comes at another's high cost. So what can we say this Passover, when the price of freedom, and the cost we risk without it, both are so high?

A Story About Stories About Stories (Passover 1)

4/6/2024

Dayenu: "it's enough for us." So we sing at every Passover seder.

But what's enough, anyway?

As Passover gathers us to celebrate freedom both ancestral and modern, what "enough" could there possibly be in liberation? And why would such a beloved Jewish tradition offer this curious declaration? Turns out, enough is both far more and far less than we might imagine.

Rabbi's Corner – April 2024: Free, Together

4/1/2024

"Why is this night different from all other nights?" This Passover question echoes across history; it's especially poignant this year amidst war, antisemitism and so much more tugging at the Jewish spirit. It's easy to forget that we are one people sharing a single human garment. This year reminds that there is no true Jewish freedom in mere individualism however comfortable, or in an echo chamber however reassuring, or in silencing, or in mere blame and finger pointing. This year demands that we all make space at our seder tables – and in our hearts – for the missing and diverse, what most comforts and what most challenges. After all, the only way we ever can be truly free is together.

Rabbi's Corner – January 2024: Spring Ahead?

1/2/2024

Happy 2024! I hope this secular year dawns bright and hopeful for you and your loved ones.

And, Jewishly speaking, happy spring! It's weird but true: we're on the runway for spring already.

The Jewish calendar has two over-arching time motives. One is the summer-autumn move of seven weeks leading to Rosh Hashanah, then through Yom Kippur and Sukkot to Simhat Torah. The other is the winter-spring move from Tu b'Shevat through Purim and Passover to Shavuot. And because this year's Tu b'Shevat falls "early" in January, we are entering onto the runway to spring.

It feels crazy early, and that's the main point....

Rabbi's Corner – December 2023, Darkness and Light

11/26/2023

Most every spiritual system has a festival time of year dedicated to shining light in the darkness. As the Northern day reaches its lowest ebb, Jews around the world prepare to celebrate Hanukkah – the Festival of Lights. Hanukkah's nightly ritual of kindling candles has become one of Judaism's most cherished rituals.

Especially this year, it's about much more than candles.

<<Previous

Omer Week 7 – Presence: Awareness and Sovereignty

About Our Shavuot Together – June 11 and June 12, 2024

How to Receive Torah (P. Bamidbar)

Life Upright and the If/Then of Spirituality (P. Behukotai)

On This Year's Shir Ami Community Seder (2024)

Find the Cost of Freedom (Passover 2)

A Story About Stories About Stories (Passover 1)

Rabbi's Corner – April 2024: Free, Together

Rabbi's Corner – January 2024: Spring Ahead?

Rabbi's Corner – December 2023, Darkness and Light

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