Dancing Through Our Tears
05/01/2023 02:40:16 PM
The following was written by Rabbi Rachel Kobrin, the spiritual leader at Congregation Rodef Shalom of Denver, Colorado. It is shared with her permission.
-Jesse Lunin-Pack, President of the Board of Trustees
Dancing Through Our Tears - Israel at 75
20 years ago, there was a bombing in the cafeteria of the Hebrew University. Two Pardes students, Marla Bennett z”l and Ben Blustein z”l were...Read more...
Remembering Amelak and Paying it Forward
03/08/2023 04:35:59 PM
In every generation, one must see oneself as if they had personally left Egypt.
These words may be familiar to us from the Passover hagaddah. On Passover, through our reenactment of the first Seder, we try to transport ourselves back in time to the Exodus. This is a bold but delightful exercise. Bold, because it’s hard to imagine living through such miracles and redemption, but delightful because at its core, the...Read more...
Days of Awe at Beacon Hebrew Alliance
08/30/2022 05:07:51 PM
As we approach Labor Day Weekend, the end of summer, and the return of children to the classroom, our thoughts inevitably also turn to the Days of Awe. Rosh Hashanah begins this year at sundown on Sunday, September 26. Kol Nidrei begins at...Read more...
Justice, Holiness and Fraudulence
06/15/2022 11:36:10 AM
What exactly is it, that we Jews are trying to do?
Against considerable odds, the Jewish people have survived for thousands of years, and sometimes it seems that’s all we’re trying to do – hold on in order to pass the venerable baton of tradition from one generation to the next. The task of the living seems to be ensuring that the chain of heritage isn’t broken on our watch.
While...Read more...
The Face Has Already Been Revealed
06/08/2022 04:09:02 PM
Many people who live a "religious life," or aspire to one, pray that God will appear to them in a cacophonous moment of revelation. Every morning in many synagogues, particularly in Israel, Jews hope for a glimpse of the divine presence when they dramatically reenact the Priestly Blessing from Parashat Naso:
May the LORD bless you, and keep you:
May the LORD make His face shine upon you, and be...Read more...
Blemished People, Unblemished Tools by Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson
05/11/2022 04:36:14 PM
Our tradition offers many incredibly valuable ancient understandings of emotional and social reality.
Sometimes, though, ancient sensibilities can feel painfully out of alignment with contemporary values. One of those difficult...Read more...
Yom HaShoah 2022
04/27/2022 03:34:34 PM
Tomorrow, the 27th of the Hebrew month of Nissan, is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
At the risk of stating the obvious, the Holocaust is first and foremost, the murder of six million Jewish human beings, the particular ancestors of...Read more...
Outward Turn of Conversation
04/20/2022 06:44:09 PM
The Torah says that a Jew “must leave the edges of his field and the gleanings of his harvest for the poor and the stranger,” and the Talmudic tradition decided that this particular commandment is an indispensable part of the process for conversion to Judaism.
A prospective convert to Judaism must immerse in a mikva and if male, be circumcised in the name of conversion. Also, the rabbi must inform the convert...Read more...
Wed, June 7 2023
18 Sivan 5783
Rabbi Brent Spodek
Rabbi Brent Chaim Spodek has been recognized by the Jewish Forward as one of the most inspiring rabbis in America, Hudson Valley Magazine as a Person to Watch and by Newsweek as "a rabbi to watch." He is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute and a Fellow of the Schusterman Foundation.
Before coming to Beacon Hebrew Alliance, he served as the Rabbi in Residence at American Jewish World Service and the Marshall T. Meyer Fellow at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York.
Rabbi Brent holds rabbinic ordination and a masters in philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was the first recipient of the Neubauer Fellowship. Prior to entering the rabbinate, he attended Wesleyan University and worked as a daily journalist in Durham, NC.
He lives in Beacon with his wife Alison, a professor of environmental chemistry at Vassar College and their two children.
