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...
Passover
04/06/2022 02:08:45 PM
Passover, the Jewish celebration of liberation is coming. Very soon, in fact!
This year, pesach falls on the evening of Friday, April 15, so many people will be taking part in seders (ritualized dinner discussions) on April 15and 16.
At the...Read more...
Talmudic Stories
03/24/2022 12:55:13 PM
When we Jews are described as the People of the Book, the book in question is not the Torah.
The Torah is, for sure, the cornerstone of Judaism, but Judaism is actually constituted through the Talmud, the study of which...Read more...
Divine Community
03/17/2022 04:55:24 PM
For the first time in three years, we read the megilah at BHA last night, and it was simply wonderful.
In 2020, we had our Purim carnival, but by the time we got to the megilah reading, it was clear that we needed to...Read more...
Building Purim Back Better
02/23/2022 03:11:59 PM
Dear Friends:
The last thing we did in our communal home was the Purim carnival in 2020; we had to shut down before we were able to read the megilah together as a community that year. So it's more than fitting that the next time we have the opportunity to gather as a full community will be for the chanting of the megilah this Purim, March 16!
We have the opportunity, and...Read more...
Reopening for Purim 2022
02/10/2022 12:58:24 PM
אם אתה מאמין, שיכולין לקלקל, תאמין שיכולין לתקן.
If you believe it can be broken, believe it can be repaired.
So teaches Rebbe Nachman, illuminating a hard, but essential spiritual truth.
Read more...
In Person Again
01/26/2022 04:46:11 PM
For all of us, these past few years have been an unpleasant object lesson in the old Yiddish adage, “Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht” - Man Plans and God Laughs.
We’ve all had plans adjusted, readjusted and canceled...Read more...
Defending the dwelling place of God
01/20/2022 12:12:29 PM
Like many of us, I was horrified and terrified by the news from Texas this weekend.
I was afraid for the life of Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and his congregants,afraid about the increasing violence that Jews...Read more...
