On Kal Nidre I spoke about the choices each of us make in our lives. I reflected on the Yom Kippur war and how Golda Meir and others made choices good and bad. All too often people let humans off the hook by claiming all is in God’s hands, but the reality is people are always making choices that impact the world at all levels.
On Friday Israelis chose to have Shabbat and Yom Tov dinners and to celebrate the Torah. Other Israelis...Read more...
Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are in the rearview mirror and now it’s time to embark on the third of the High Holidays. Sukkot is often not thought of as a part of the Jewish Holiday Season but, in fact, it’s the final part. We celebrate Sukkot each year just days after we’ve completed the fast of Yom Kippur. Sukkot will begin this year on Friday Evening (9/29/2023) and will conclude next Friday (10/6/2023) and then we’ll really...Read more...
The opening words of this week’s Parsha are “Give ear, O Heavens, let me speak; Let the earth hear the words I utter.” (Deuteronomy 32:1) I have this image in my head of a person, Moses, demanding to be heard and wondering where all the people are to listen to his words. We’re all familiar with the philosophical question: if a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s there to hear it does it make a sound? I mention this to express that,...Read more...
Confession time (I mean its High Holiday time): I am a Swiftie. I actually spent a couple hours this year trying to score tickets to her sold out tour and was utterly bummed when I was unable to get tickets. I don’t listen to a lot of music in the car, I spend most of the time listening to talk radio, books and podcasts, but when I have listened to music this year, I have to admit I always got a bit uplifted when a Taylor Swift song came on...Read more...
