Choosing Our Character: A Yom Kippur Message

Delivered Yom Kippur morning by Rabbi Jill Maderer

A woman sits at an airport gate, reading her book and eating a bag of cookies… begins Valerie Cox in her poem, “The Cookie Thief.”  The woman at the airport realizes the man next to her– a stranger– is sticking his hand into her bag and eating her cookies!  How dare he do such a thing?  Her row is called, she boards the airplane, settles into her seat and reaches into her handbag for her book.  And there it is.  Instead of the book, she pulls out her unopened bag of cookies.  The bag at the gate belonged to the man.  He had quietly let her stick her hand into his cookies.  She was the cookie thief!

What was this man’s disposition, that he simply allowed a stranger to share his snack?  And what was this woman’s attitude, that she assumed the worst in someone else?  How much does a response to a small everyday, situation say about who we are?  Jewish tradition teaches that both the large life turning-points and those daily small moments reveal our character, or spiritually we might say, our soul.Continue reading

Mindfulness and Spirituality: Join Us for Selichot

This Saturday we welcome a powerful guest speaker and teacher of spirituality to help us kick-off the High Holy Days with Selichot.
“Going Long, Going Deep: Delving into Our Souls as We Delve into a New High Holy Day Prayerbook” with Rabbi Rex Perlmeter on Saturday, September 20, 2014 at 8pm
We will explore passages from the new High Holy Day prayerbook of the Reform Movement, Mishkan HaNefesh, with Rabbi Rex Perlmeter who serves on the  High Holy Day Prayer Book Advisory Board and is a Founding Director of the Jewish Wellness Center.
8:00pm: Grand Dessert Buffet  
8:15pm:  Study Session
9:30pm: Selichot Service

Family Friendly High Holy Day Services at RS

Open your heart, deepen your soul and celebrate…Please join us for a meaningful High Holy Day season!

Contemporary Multi-generational Morning Services– Rosh Hashanah: Thursday, September 25, 8:30 am; Yom Kippur: Saturday, October 4, 8:30 am A full service for adults; yet a family-friendly atmosphere with children of all ages. Gender-inclusive language, Hebrew transliteration, participation in singing and prayer. Informal, comfortable setting for families with young children and activities for children during the sermon. Requires a “pass”; please contact Catherine Fischer cfischer@rodephshalom.org to become a member or prospective member and get a pass.

Tashlich Service at Fairmount Waterworks
Thursday, September 25, 1:30pm, 640 Water Works Drive
Cast away your sins with breadcrumbs!  Open to all.

Afternoon Mini-Service for Families– Rosh Hashanah: Thursday, September 25, 3:00 pm; Yom Kippur: Saturday, October 4, 1:30 pm  A very brief service for families of very young (non-reading) children and their parents and grandparents. Open to the community; no charge, please just bring photo ID for security.

The Aisles Are Open: Spiritual Release

Last month, a rabbi visiting Camp Harlam Overnight Camp scowled when in the dining hall, he saw the campers banging on tables to the beat of Birkat Hamazon, Grace After Meals.   He missed it.  This rabbi missed the whole point.  He missed the fact that hundreds of campers knew all the words to a very long Hebrew blessing.  He missed the fact that in that moment they were absolutely aware of the connection between eating and gratitude.  He missed the Jewish pride in their eyes as they felt that knowing Hebrew and connecting Jewishly, is cool.  And he missed the spiritual release that was happening for our campers in that dining hall, during Birkat Hamazon and song session.

Continue reading

Looking Back on Last Week’s Israel Conversation

Thank you to the many congregants who participated in last week’s “Israel: It’s Time for a Conversation.”  Your open minds, listening ears and compassion hearts enabled the clergy to share our perspectives with full trust, and allowed so many of you to engage in a thoughtful and thought-provoking discussion. Please continue to engage in Israel through our course this fall, ReadRS book discussions, the Tel Aviv to Ramallah Hip-Hop concert and our trip to Israel this spring.

On Wednesday, we opened the conversation with the words of Psalm 122:6-9:Continue reading

Letting Go This Elul

Re-eh: see, the opening word of this week’s Torah portion.  See, I set before you blessing and curse.  Look hard. Sometimes it’s hard to see what is blessing and what is curse.  What is right and what’s not right.  Or what’s no longer right.

Now on the cusp of Elul, the Hebrew month that begins Wednesday and prepares us for the teshuvah–repentance– of the High Holy Day season, we look hard so that we can tell the difference between the blessing and the curse, the good and the bad.  We look hard at our choices, our priorities, our relationship with God, our relationships with other people.  We examine the conflicts in our lives and devote ourselves to improvement, change, growth.

For this week’s summer crowdsourcing sermon, your clergy posed the question: “Have you ever carried around a grudge or a feeling that did not allow you to move forward completely?  Have you ever let go of such a feeling?”Continue reading

Israel: It’s Time for a Conversation

We look forward to a thoughtful and thought-provoking conversation:

Israel: It’s Time for a Conversation

Wed., Aug 27, 7:00 pm, with RS Clergy
As our concern for Israel grows, our hopes for peace are challenged, and our mourning for the loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives continues, the RS clergy invites you join a conversation.  We would like to share our perspectives about our commitment to Israel and about the conflict and war, explore ways we can talk to friends and offer thoughts about how to navigate the media.  Most important, we’ll provide time for our congregation to share, ask questions and connect.  We’ll conclude with a prayer for peace.
Suggested background reading and media sources:
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, Union for Reform Judiasm
Thomas Friedman, New York Times
David Harris, American Jewish Committee

Comfort, Oh Comfort My People, Says Your God

We move into Tisha B’Av, our tradition’s day of mourning for the destruction of the Temple and for violence Jews have faced since then.  Our hearts are in the East as we stand with Israel ever supporting her right to defend herself, as we mourn for the loss of life among Israelis and Palestinians, and as we seek a path to an enduring and secure peace.  May we heed the words of URJ president Rabbi Rick Jacobs’ in his column in Haaretz: as Hamas wages war on Israel’s very right to exist, we do not answer hatred with hatred. From the words of the Lamentations text we read for Tisha B’Av: Comfort, Oh comfort My people, says God.  You can support our community’s Stop the Sirens campaign here.

Israel Conversations: How Did We Get Here?

Operation Protective Edge and the decades of conflict that led to it is hard for even the experts to understand.  RS will offer a course this fall, designed for all of us who feel a thirst for background of Israel’s history and a thirst for understanding of the people and culture of Israel today.  Learn about our approach in this Bulletin article by RS Past President, Fred Strober.Continue reading