Category: Festivals

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.

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.

Out of the Darkness (P. Mikeitz)

12/14/2025

During this Hanukkah week – and now in the wake of the attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Australia – we kindle candles of hope, continuity and community.

We participate in an extraordinary collective act of hutzpah.

We've all known the darkness before the dawn, the anxiety before the knowing, the gauntlet before the triumph. There have been times so dark that we could never imagine light ever penetrating.

And yet.

Rabbi's Corner: December 2025 – A Year's Second Hanukkah

11/30/2025

Thanks to how this year's secular and Jewish calendars interact, the approaching Festival of Lights will be the second Hanukkah of 2025.

Hanukkah is one of Judaism's most popular celebrations. For centuries, our people voted with our candles and community gatherings, as will we several times during the weeks ahead.

In this month's Rabbi's Corner, R. David offers two ways that perhaps we can make this year's Hanukkah uniquely meaningful, rooted in the deep well from which Hanukkah springs.

Don't miss the light shining at Shir Ami!

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?

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.

Rabbi's Corner – June 2025: Shavuot, Loving Together at Sinai

6/1/2025

Happy June, which this year also means Happy Shavuot!

Rabbi David offers coming attractions about the Shavuot festival of love this weekend, and some personal thoughts about what this festival means to him amidst family challenges.

Holy Gear Shifts (P. Emor)

5/11/2025

As spiritual beings, we can understand life as a constant choice between inertia and change, letting things ride or deliberately altering them. We don't pay attention, or we do. We accept what is, or we try to act.

So it is with most things Jewish, especially Jewish time – a series of holy gear shifts throughout life.

All Together, Then and Now – and Omer Week 2 (Passover)

4/14/2025

We say that each of us was there. In ancestral ways that defy the mind, every soul spark that ever was experienced the miracle of the Sea splitting to reveal our freedom path forward. The moment was so awesome that we all became like prophets. We still carry that vision.

Passover's seventh day is the anniversary of that awesome day. Honoring that we all were there, we bring in our departed ancestors for Yizkor.

You Are the High Priest – and Omer 5785 (P. Tzav & Passover)

4/6/2025

The matzah that is the Passover bread is about many things. Amidst the crunch and crumbles we might find humility, ancestry, community and reminders of liberation.

Hidden in matzah's layers of meaning (and this week's Torah portion) is one more thing – a profound empowerment and call to each of us.

<<Previous

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

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

Out of the Darkness (P. Mikeitz)

Rabbi's Corner: December 2025 – A Year's Second Hanukkah

The Mitzvah of Joy (Sukkot)

For Whom We Stand (P. Ha'azinu)

Rabbi's Corner – June 2025: Shavuot, Loving Together at Sinai

Holy Gear Shifts (P. Emor)

All Together, Then and Now – and Omer Week 2 (Passover)

You Are the High Priest – and Omer 5785 (P. Tzav & Passover)

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