Ten days ago, I had the honor of leading our Kabbalat Shabbat service at the start of Elul, the current and final month of the year in the Jewish calendar. It’s been three or four years since I started serving as a lay leader in the kehilah, a role I never imagined I would take Read More
Tag: Alan Lew this is real and you are completely unprepared
Preparing for the 5784 High Holy Days of Awe: Week 5
NOTE: This is the 5th in a series of posts linking social and environmental justice issues to the 7 sephirot of the Omer cycle. To read the past four posts, please visit our blog. WEEK 5: Tiferet: Opening to Beauty & Brokenness by Michelle Moskowitz Brown The light of Tiferet is strong, demanding, radiant. Notice colors this Read More
Preparing for the 5784 High Holy Days of Awe: Week 4
NOTE: This is the 4th in a series of posts linking social and environmental justice issues to the 7 sephirot of the Omer cycle. Previous offerings are available in the archive of this blog. WEEK 4: “I believe I can do this!”: Learning from Nezach – Confidence/Persistencea Collaborative Offering, curated by Debra Seltzer Just over a year Read More
Preparing for the 5784 High Holy Days of Awe: Week 3
WEEK 3: Being Anti-Racist: Learning from the Sephira Hod – Humility/Gloryby Debra Seltzer For those of you who read my post in week one, about Israel-Palestine, I left some threads that connect to this week of introspection. I wrote that “the United States is my own country, with its own challenges which I am committed Read More
Prepared for Passover?
When I was a kid, Passover was a really big deal. My earliest memories are from my maternal grandparents’ house in Miami. They set up a long table around which four generations of family members gathered with my Great Grandpa Victor at the helm. Those seders lasted a very long time. He led the service Read More
The Season of Endings and Beginnings
Born from a seed, the tree bears seed. The land spends itself to create what will thrive next spring. Fruit swells to bursting. Humans, animals, and birds harvest the grains, nuts, and berries of the land. Plants begin to fade, their life concentrated on a single point: the new kernel, pulsing with stored-up life. We Read More