Category: Spirituality

Every Day, A Voice Comes Forth (Shavuot)

5/17/2026

Where does our "belly barometer" come from? How do we know what is just and right?

This week, the Torah cycle suspends for Shavuot, our festival anniversary of the revelation at Sinai, and our collective communion with the One we call God.

Though our community opted not to schedule a Shavuot celebration this year due to Memorial Day weekend (we'll have a mini-Yizkor online), it's still an important important chance to consider our source of revelation, justice and rightness.

Redeeming Life's Wilderness (P. Bamidbar)

5/10/2026

I intend my weekly Torah writings to be about more than the Torah portion. I tend to see in nearly every portion both the flow of spirit and community far more than myself, and universal values that transcend any particular time, place and context.

But right now, for personal reasons I see Torah reflecting back at me my own situation. – and in particular my own personal wilderness, what I might learn there, and how I might redeem it.

Even so, I sense that my present experience isn't much different than most everyone's at one time or another. As for me, perhaps also for you.

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.

Our Greatest Interests of All (P. Behar-Behukotai)

5/3/2026

Money can be a sensitive subject, which is one reason Torah bans charging interest among our people. (The Qur'an does the same for Muslims.)

Torah and Qur'an are aiming at far more than money: after all, most of us don't lend money.

This mitzvah is really about relationships and right use of power, which spiritually are far more important than money. This mitzvah aims at the heart of our greatest interest of all.

Counting Our Days for Spiritual Healing (P. Emor)

4/26/2026

On Torah's sacred calendar, most every holiday begins either at the new moon or the full moon. Our calendar is in the sky, shining down on us every day.

There are two exceptions to this new moon / full moon calendar. One is Yom Kippur, for which we count days since Rosh Hashanah. The other is the forthcoming Shavuot, for which we count days since Passover.

Now we have printed (and digital) calendars, but we still count our days – for an important reason.

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.

Did God Do That? (P. Shemini)

4/5/2026

Why do we believe or not believe? Why do our beliefs change? There are countless reasons. You have yours.

One reason, I've come to sense, is how religious and spiritual concepts are conveyed – which, for most of us, requires translation from Hebrew.

The thing is, translations aren't value-neutral, which can tilt much of what we learn and come to understand. Over the centuries, it can make a huge difference spiritually.

Come see how it can impact what we hold most dear or keep furthest at bay.

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.

No Easy Walk to Freedom (P. Tzav)

3/22/2026

In olden days, during the week leading into Passover, rabbis gathered folks to huddle about the strictures of keeping kosher for Passover.

Instead, let's huddle about the freedom that we're about to celebrate.

Let's huddle about the Passover that rekindles the eternal flame of our identity and social- justice mission to spread freedom to others who cower in dehumanizing want and fear.

Let's huddle about how, especially now, freedom means bringing light to dark places.

<<Previous

Every Day, A Voice Comes Forth (Shavuot)

Redeeming Life's Wilderness (P. Bamidbar)

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

Our Greatest Interests of All (P. Behar-Behukotai)

Counting Our Days for Spiritual Healing (P. Emor)

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

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

Did God Do That? (P. Shemini)

When the Liberation Began (Passover 2026)

No Easy Walk to Freedom (P. Tzav)

Categories

Archives

Mailing Address

Worship

Contact Us