What I love about our crowd-sourced sermons is that it doesn’t matter what I wanted to write about or say in relation to the text I presented, what interested you about this week’s question is now what I have to write about. This situation actually sums up pretty well a...
Tonight I pray for the State of Israel. And I pray in dismay and worry, having heard the statement from the Prime Minister, broadcast around the world: We are willing to become smaller, so we don’t have to think bigger; we would rather cover the bud than take this chance to...
Do you remember that scene in the movie Mary Poppins when Jane and Michael jump into Burt-the-chimney-sweep’s chalk paintings on the pavement and actually become part of the scene depicted? I have had one experience in my life where I felt like I stepped into a story. I was in...
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/FUsK4vrS7rI?hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0] Our discussion on the blog this week was inspired by the question, “What song or piece of music makes you think differently or think deeply?” Some individuals mentioned a particular song and some mentioned a particular text. All talked about how the music makes them think. Two ideas emerged...
A continuing theme running through the book of Exodus is the coming and going of both Moses and God. After the lengthy drama of the Exodus, Moses disappears up the mountain and reappears to see the chaos of the episode of The Golden Calf. He is God’s corporeal messenger to...
Count the omer and explore the attribute of tiferet, beauty, by witnessing the power of live theater at our production of The Fiery Furnace, Sunday May 4 at 4 pm at RS. We are staging an original musical right here in this sanctuary on Sunday, May 4. The Fiery Furnace:...
Let me tell you about this piano. It belonged to my grandmother, and for the last 11 years it has belonged to me. My grandmother, Philly Krieks, was Dutch, born and raised in Amsterdam. She and one of her two sisters studied music and sang in the Concertgebouw Orchestra Chorus,...
Some might think I’ve been spending too much time in The Fiery Furnace. (That’s the title of the original musical we are producing this spring starring our very own cast of RS students, based on a story from the Book of Daniel.) But everywhere I look this week, I see...
The moment I hear something familiar in a new way, I feel a charge that to me epitomizes what it means to be alive. The moment engages us in its call to consider. I most recently experienced one of these moments listening to the radio in my car. I heard...
It is the week of resolutions. Are you off on the right foot? How did you strengthen yourself to approach your new beginnings with a full heart, with full intention, and the will to not look back? I found inspiration for this new secular year in a different type of...
