Category: From The Rabbi's Desk

Rabbi's Corner: September 2026 & High Holy Days: #RenewingBalance

8/30/2026

This month's important "Rabbi's Corner" column is all about the High Holy Days of 5787 – may they bring goodness and sweet renewal of spirit.

Please read for updates on this year's holiday season, ways to make the most of them, and registration for autumn programming.

Rabbi's Corner: August 2026 & High Holy Days: #RenewingBalance

7/30/2026

As August begins, already we're on the High Holy Day runway. It always feels too soon, and this year the holidays come "early."

In the last two years, our holiday seasons explored themes of love and strength. The world has needed both, and so have we.

For 5787, it's time to renew balance.

Rabbi's Corner: July 2026 – We Hold These Truths

7/1/2026

In a hot Philadelphia boarding house, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence that still reverberates 250 years later: "We hold these truths to be self-evident...."

If truths were self-evident in 1776, then we can expect to find them long before – including in Jewish wisdom many centuries earlier.

Rabbi's Corner: June 2026 – The Spirituality of Now and Then

6/1/2026

June brings summer and peak light (even if the weather has been finicky). For Shir Ami and many congregations, June is a "last hurrah" before summer break.

This year, because the High Holy Days come a bit "early," June also begins a "split screen" of focus on the Now of summer light and the Then of what's next.

There's a deep spirituality to fully living both Now and Then.

Rabbi's Corner: May 2026 – On Receiving Torah & May Highlights

5/3/2026

Fittingly for this month that leads into Shavuot, our festival of receiving Torah, I write these words on the evening after Nancy Heller's bat mitzvah.

I write these words about how we receive Torah and what it means for a spiritual community to put Torah at our center –

– the physical scroll, of course, and far more.

Rabbi's Corner: April 2026 – Events of Identity, Remembrance and Presence

4/1/2026

Passover re-launches the Jewish cycle of identity, remembrance and presence. Passover's end brings Yizkor for our deceased loved ones. The following week brings Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), then days later comes Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Israel Independence Day).

Shir Ami will commemorate each of them, along with Refugee Shabbat and Holiness Shabbat.

Mark your calendars. As spring unfolds, it's time to go public in community and solidarity.

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.

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.

Rabbi's Corner: January 2026 – Early Spiritual Pre-Spring

1/1/2026

Happy New Year 2026, Shir Ami!

In secular life, it's a time of new calendars, new year's resolutions and perhaps gentle re-boots.

Because the Jewish calendar precesses 11 days each year, this year's spiritual pre-spring begins a bit early.

Then again, already it's been a cold and snowy winter – with perhaps months to go – so an early spiritual pre-spring is welcome.

Turns out that nature already is getting in on the act. Already creative juices are flowing. Already a re-boot is in progress.

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!

<<Previous

Rabbi's Corner: September 2026 & High Holy Days: #RenewingBalance

Rabbi's Corner: August 2026 & High Holy Days: #RenewingBalance

Rabbi's Corner: July 2026 – We Hold These Truths

Rabbi's Corner: June 2026 – The Spirituality of Now and Then

Rabbi's Corner: May 2026 – On Receiving Torah & May Highlights

Rabbi's Corner: April 2026 – Events of Identity, Remembrance and Presence

Rabbi's Corner: March 2026 – Plugging into Grief, Joy, Anxiety and Hope

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

Rabbi's Corner: January 2026 – Early Spiritual Pre-Spring

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

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