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Learning to Speak Jewish

02/26/2014 05:33:00 AM

Feb26

When I was growing up in southern Brooklyn, everyone I knew was Black, Jewish or Italian.

I wasn't aware of Protestants until I was in high school and I was utterly flummoxed by the idea that Catholics and Protestants fought wars against each other. After all, they were all gentiles - what did they have to fight about?

When I was a kid, Jewish Ed Koch was the mayor, Italian Mario Cuomo was governor and I was...Read more...

Religious, not Spiritual

09/10/2013 10:59:00 AM

Sep10

The following is a teaching that Rabbi Brent Chaim Spodek offered on the second day of Rosh Hashona, September 6, 2013. 

There is a member of our congregation who has mixed feelings about Judaism - just one, I think - and not long ago, he asked me if I, perhaps together with my colleague Pastor Larson-Wolbrink at First Presbyterian, would consider just starting our own religion. We could call it Beaconism

Read more...

Days of Awe - Some Frequently Asked Questions

08/30/2013 11:20:00 AM

Aug30

High Holiday FAQs - Upstairs

 

Do I need to wear a Kippah or a Tallis? Kippot or yarmulkes are the headcoverings you'll see people wearing and a tallis is the prayer shawl. If you're comfortable wearing either or both, wear them! If you have questions, ask one of the ushers. If you want to experiment and try wearing one, try...Read more...

These are the deeds: This Thing We Call Prayer

07/24/2013 08:38:00 AM

Jul24

It's tempting to think of prayer as an eloquent form of begging. 

Please let me live. Please let me get this job. Please let my team win this football game.   If we learn the "right" words to the prayers, if wecome to shul and sit and stand at the proper times, if we get it right, then our prayers will work.   It's tempting to think that's how prayer works and it is equally tempting to...Read more...

Every Breath Praises Yah: Thoughts on Psalm 150

06/11/2013 04:24:00 PM

Jun11

The command to praise God can be paralyzing.

Regardless of who or what we think God is, we don't know how to offer praise. We praise those we patronize, like children or subordinates and we praise those who have not yet disappointed us although we suspect they will, like politicians at the beginning of their terms.

But for many Jews, exhortations to "Praise the Lord" can feel foreign if not absolutely bizarre....Read more...

Every Place I walk, I walk to Jerusalem: Thoughts on Psalm 137

06/04/2013 06:28:00 AM

Jun4

Some of us have traveled to Jerusalem, the beautiful white stone city and some have not. But we have all been to Jerusalem. The name of Jerusalem - Yerushalayim in Hebrew - means city of wholeness or completeness. And at one point in our lives or another, we have all been in a place of wholeness a place of shlaymut.

We have all been to a place where the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and all is right with the world....Read more...

Sing, Sing, Sing: Thoughts on Psalm 105

05/29/2013 03:16:00 PM

May29

We all have habits of mind, well-worn neural pathways down which our minds go racing when we are anxious, when we lie down to sleep or simply when we are idle.

Rebbe Nachman calls these habits ????? ???? - thieves of consciousness. They are the habits of mind which draw our consciousness towards harmful, destructive places, places from which it can be difficult to extract ourselves.

Its easy to see these "thieves"...Read more...

Gratitude in Pain: Reflections on Psalm 90, the seventh Psalm of the Tikkun HaClali

05/22/2013 07:40:00 AM

May22

Every week at my family's Shabbat dinner table, we all share something we are each thankful for.

Even in the hardest weeks, when there is plenty of pain to be acknowledged, there is always a moment of grace worthy of gratitude.

Practicing gratitude does not negate the real suffering that we humans endure; neither does it make our suffering comprehensible or worthwhile. It merely says that our experiences of beauty...Read more...

Miracle Factories: Reflections on Psalm 77, the sixth Psalm of the Tikkun HaClali

05/08/2013 07:21:00 AM

May8

Hospitals can be miracle factories.

They can be places where doctors and nurses access the Energy of Creation and help some beloved creations live somewhat longer.

We enter the hospital knowing that people before us have been cured, that miracles have been wrought for others and we hope there will be miracles for us as well. We enter with hope and of course the fear that the miracles we seek will elude...Read more...

Only Today: Reflections on Psalm 59, the fifth Psalm of the Tikkun HaClali

05/01/2013 07:36:00 AM

May1

Wellness and illness are not fixed states; they are snapshots of a moment, points in time. Nobody can truly say, "I am well"; we can only accurately say "I am well now."

Spiritually traditional Jews will often preface statements about the future with the phrase, "????? ???/b'ezrat haShem," or "with the help of the Holy One," as in "b'ezrat HaShem, I'll get married next week," or even, "b'ezrat Hashem, I'll go to school...Read more...

Thu, July 17 2025 21 Tammuz 5785