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Where is this world do you find beauty? For this week of focus on beauty, we celebrate the work of our congregant, Elise Kraemer, who is creating art for her counting of the Omer. Focusing on Chesed sh’b Tiferet – love within beauty – Elise includes the text: “wake up to your life, beauty in sorrow, pain and joy, full catastrophe.”Continue reading
One of the most beautiful ideas of Judaism is that we should strive to improve ourselves every day. This is the purpose of the High Holy Days, during which we take the time to examine our lives and consider what we have done wrong in the past year, and what we can do to become better people in the coming year.Continue reading
We all feel fear. The question is, do we act on it? When, in their escape from slavery, the Israelites are stuck between the Sea of Reeds before them and the Egyptian chariots behind them, what’s Moses’ message? Don’t be afraid. Rabbi Alan Lew, of blessed memory, notes that perhaps the Israelites didn’t really need to be afraid: The Pharaoh sent 600 chariots, while the Israelites numbered more than a million. Why would such an enormous group be afraid of an army of so few? His answer is that they are not responding to what was really there, nor even to what they saw. Rather they were responding to a phantom. They were responding to a fear-inducing product of their own imagination. So when Moses says “Don’t be afraid” he means “don’t panic” or “move forward” or “Don’t spend your life anxious about the things that seem scary or the demons you imagine.” Continue reading
https://www.ted.com/talks/geena_rocero_why_i_must_come_out
For the 12th day of the omer in this week of givurah, strength, the courage of one fashion model to speak her truth.
Baruch Ata Adonai, Elohenu Melech ha-olam asher kidishanu b’mitzvotav vitzivanu al s’firat ha’omer. Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the universe, who makes us holy with sacred actions and enjoins us to count the omer.
Hayom shenayim asar yom, shehem shavuah echad vachamishah yamim, la-omer. Today is 12 days which is one week and 5 days of the Omer.
Wishing you a meaningful omer– Your RS Clergy
Is it ok to be angry? Jewish tradition says yes–anger is valuable when it drives us to stand against injustice. For today’s omer counting and this week’s focus on might, givurah, we celebrate these girls who raise their voices for the purpose of justice.
Baruch Ata Adonai, Elohenu Melech ha-olam asher kidishanu b’mitzvotav vitzivanu al s’firat ha’omer. Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the universe, who makes us holy with sacred actions and enjoins us to count the omer.
Hayom achad asar yom, shehem shavuah echad v’arba-ah yamim, la-omer. Today is 11 days which is one week and 4 days of the Omer.
Wishing you a meaningful omer– Your RS Clergy
Baruch Ata Adonai, Elohenu Melech ha-olam asher kidishanu b’mitzvotav vitzivanu al s’firat ha’omer. Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the universe, who makes us holy with sacred actions and enjoins us to count the omer.
Hayom asarah yamim, shehem shavuah echad, ushlosha yamim la-omer. Today is 10 days which are one week and 3 days of the Omer.
Wishing you a meaningful omer– Your RS Clergy
For our 9th day of counting the omer, and our week focused on givurah, “strength,” we turn to the inspiring words that Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell delivered this Shabbat, when we marked her retirement from the Union for Reform Judaism.
“From Self to Soul: Passover, Passages, Passing through, and Counting”
We are here tonight, this Friday, April 18th, 18 Nisan 5774. On Monday night, many of us gathered around seder tables, and, with others, we engaged in a very ancient ritual of remembering and recounting stories from our past, both our collective past and some of our own journeys. We retold how the passages of our lives have shaped us, burnished us, formed us.Continue reading
Baruch Ata Adonai, Elohenu Melech ha-olam asher kidishanu b’mitzvotav vitzivanu al s’firat ha’omer. Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the universe, who makes us holy with sacred actions and enjoins us to count the omer.
Hayom shimonah yamim, shehem shevuah echad veyom echad la-aomer. Today is 8 days, which are one week and one day of the omer.
Happy Earth Day–Your RS Clergy
A story is told of a rabbi who lay on his deathbed, smiling. “Why” his students asked, “just moments away from death, are you smiling?”
“Because,” the rabbi replied, “For the first time, I understand the words of Vahavta: You shall love the Eternal with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul. Now on my deathbed, I see that when all else is stripped away, what’s left is love.”
The Song of Songs, the biblical scroll traditionally read on Passover, teaches: “Love is as strong as death” (8:6).
In our counting of the omer during this week focused on loving-kindness, may try to strip away ego, distraction, all else but love.Continue reading
A story is told about Rabbi Akiva’s daughter. When she was born, astrologers told Rabbi Akiva that on her wedding day, she would be killed by a poisonous snake and die. Years pass and the evening before the daughter’s wedding day arrives. Exhausted after the rehearsal dinner, she climbs into bed, pulls her hairpin from her head, and sticks it in the wall for the next day.
The next morning, as Rabbi Akiva’s daughter is getting ready for her wedding, she pulls her hairpin from the wall and sees a poisonous snake impaled on the end! She shrieks as she realizes how close the snakeContinue reading
