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Holiness in Community

04/21/2021 05:16:17 PM

Apr21

Rabbi Brent Spodek

In Parshat Kedoshim, the Holy One instructs Moses to say to the entire Israelite community: “You shall be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” 

The instruction is addressed in the plural, to the entire community, because holiness is a...Read more...

Changes

04/14/2021 02:48:03 PM

Apr14

Rabbi Brent Spodek

From our Education Director, Julia Gross Alexander:

Dear BHA Community,

Not quite three years ago, I was honored to be entrusted as the Education Director  at BHA. I was excited to build on the foundation Ashley Baker...Read more...

Nazis are personal

04/07/2021 03:19:52 PM

Apr7

Rabbi Brent Spodeck

Charlottesville "Unite the Right" Rally; photo: Anthony Crider

The Nazis are personal for me. Perhaps they are for you as well.

I’m a rabbi with a mezuzah on my door and a rainbow flag on my front...Read more...

Discussion with Sabeeha Rehman & Walter Ruby on Shavuot

03/31/2021 01:39:44 PM

Mar31

Rabbi Brent Spodek

On Pesach, we celebrate our liberation from slavery; 49 days later, on Shavuot, we celebrate receiving the Torah’s wisdom at Mt Sinai. 

This year, to celebrate Shavuot, we’ll be welcoming Sabeeha Rehman together with Walter Ruby to discuss...Read more...

Pesach Roundup 2021

03/23/2021 03:35:01 PM

Mar23

Rabbi Brent Spodek

This Saturday night, we will begin Passover - for many of us, it will be our second Seder on Zoom, with its attendant blessings and curses. I want to share some resources here to help you prepare for Pesach, however you are celebrating it!

On Line Seder...Read more...

Fighting Nazis, yesterday & today

03/18/2021 01:44:27 PM

Mar18

Rabbi Brent Spodek

Those of us who are white skinned Jews live in a liminal space in the American racial hierarchy. 

Sometimes - driving our car, walking through a store - we present as white and reap the unearned benefits of white skin privilege.  

Other times, we are deeply aware of the fact that while we are not oppressed in the way that black and brown people often are, we are vulnerable in ways...Read more...

The Path from Charlottesville to Capitol Hill

03/10/2021 03:41:19 PM

Mar10

Rabbi Brent Spodek

Thursday, April 8 is Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

While we like to think the horrors of the Nazis are history to be remembered, they are sadly part of our contemporary moment as well. In 2017, American neo-Nazis and other fascists gathered in Charlottesville, VA to “Unite the Right,” chanting “Jews will not replace us,” and murdering Heather Heyer.

Read more...

Liberal Judaism in Israel

03/03/2021 11:36:59 AM

Mar3

Rabbi Brent Spodek

Photo: Sebastian Scheiner/Associated Press Photo: Sebastian Scheiner/Associated Press

One of the strange peculiarities of contemporary Jewish life is that while in America, I am a rabbi and I teach Judaism, in Israel, I am not a rabbi and what...Read more...

Out of Narrow Places

02/24/2021 01:35:07 PM

Feb24

Rabbi Brent Spodek

This has been a harrowing, narrowing year. 

Our worlds have contracted - to the size of our homes, to the size of a computer screen, to the people, if any, in our pod. 

We are all in a narrow place these days. 

Judaism’s...Read more...

Ecstatic Groceries

02/10/2021 04:01:57 PM

Feb10

Rabbi Brent Spodek

I like to davven in the forest, on the mountains, in the wild. The presence of the Creator somehow seems closer there, perhaps because my to-do list seems further away.

Of course, as peak experiences go, nothing compares to the experience that the Israelites...Read more...

Tue, May 7 2024 29 Nisan 5784