How We Gather: In-Person and Virtual Jewish Life at Congregation Rodeph Shalom Moving Forward On behalf of Rabbi Eli Freedman, Jennifer James our Director of Youth Learning, and Jeff Katz our executive director, with whom in collaboration I shared these plans at our Annual Meeting, I feel uplifted with a...
Good evening and thank you for joining us for the 2021 Annual Meeting of Congregants. Our agenda for this evening is to review this past year, to look forward to our next year, to elect new members of the Board of Directors and to acknowledge the extraordinary work of volunteers....
The Holiness in Protecting Ourselves and Each Other Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the man who lives by the river. He hears a radio report that a storm is coming. The river is going to rush up and flood the town. All the residents should evacuate their homes....
Dear Rodeph Shalom Congregants, It is our great pleasure to announce that Cantor Bradley Hyman will be joining Congregation Rodeph Shalom as our permanent cantor on July 1, 2021. After a rigorous process, our Cantor Search Task Force enthusiastically agreed that Cantor Hyman is the best fit for our...
Statement for Black Lives from Rodeph Shalom Board of Directors and Rodeph Shalom Clergy Dear Congregants, Our Talmud inspires us with this teaching: “God creates a single person first, for the sake of peace among humankind that one should not say to the other, ‘My lineage is greater than your...
Who here still has one of these? [middah bracelet] Last year, in conjunction with my Erev Rosh Hashanah sermon, we gave out these middot bracelets. Middot are the character virtues taught by mussar, a values-based approach to Jewish ethics and character development. The bracelets were meant to serve as simple...
Who shall live and who shall die? Who will be tranquil and who will be troubled? Life’s profound uncertainty is embedded in our ancient High Holy Day words. The Unetaneh Tokef prayer on Yom Kippur asks the hardest, deepest questions of our lives and leaves us without answer. We do...
A Berkman Mercaz Limud class was studying the Akeidah, or “Binding of Isaac,” one of the traditional Torah readings for Rosh Hashanah morning. In the story God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. As Abraham lifts his knife for the sacrifice an angel stops him at the last second; Abraham...
There is a new four-letter word in my household — plan. In these past months, we have essentially banned the word plan. We have hopes, we have scenarios, but when it comes to school, work, spending, visits with family, my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah, there is no plan. The Jewish philosopher...
A Commentary on Gen. 22:1-19 by Carl Schneider The Bible tells us Abe and Ike To Mount Moriah took a hike, To do the sacrificial bit. Who was the victim? Ike was it! This was no simple weekend frolic. The whole event was quite symbolic. Abe was the subject of...
