Would You Stop for Beauty?

On a cold January morning during rush hour, at a Washington, DC metro station, a man wearing blue jeans, a tee-shirt and a baseball cap takes out his violin and begins to play.  Although the scene looks much like any street performance, it’s actually a stunt.  This is not just any street musician. This is master violinist, Joshua Bell.

A few years ago, The Washington Post invited Joshua Bell to participate in a social experiment.  They wondered: what would commuters do if they encountered exquisite music during their rush to get to work?  Without realizing that they were listening to a one-time child prodigy whose intricate music was being played on an expensive violin, and who just the evening prior had commanded on average $100 a seat at the symphony hall, would people stop for beauty?Continue reading

Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month

Our congregant and community leader, Judith Creed, shares JChai resources for adults and a message about the importance of inclusion for Jews with disabilities.

When my son, Jonah, was born in 1973 and diagnosed as being disabled, the picture for people with special needs was pretty bleak. There were no social programs, synagogues did not accept special needs children in their schools, and we all were worried about the future of our kids. In 1987 a group of parents and myself got together and we opened our first group home—that would include Shabbat dinners, holidays, keeping  a kosher-style kitchen and would teach our children how to live independently.Continue reading

Doing and Understanding the Meaning of Our Lives

Delivered by Rabbi Bill Kuhn this past Shabbat.

I am glad to see that you’ve all survived the 3rd great blizzard of 2014.  I am sure all of us were faced with challenges of some sort or another, but it is good to gather together here in this sacred and safe place to enjoy the warmth of the spirit of our congregational family.

I have always been amazed  by what happens to people when faced with a common threat.  During a big snowstorm, people will help each other.  You may not even say hello to a neighbor normally, but during a snowstorm, you’re shoveling their walk and checking on them to see if they’re ok.  TV stations suspend their regular programming to bring you live coverage of the snowstorm and to report on how people all over the region are faring.  They show film of young strapping men getting out of their cars to lend a hand to a total stranger whose car is stuck in a snow bank.  A common threat can transform us from competitive, closed uncaring people into kind, compassionate loving mensches.

I believe we feel this same phenomenon when we come here to share Shabbat services every Friday night.  We do feel under a common threat.  Not from a snowstorm, but from a spiritual storm – a life storm. Continue reading

RS Caring Community Mitzvah Meals

IMG_7355 (1)There are times when each one of us must learn to relinquish the illusion that we are self-reliant and to acknowledge that we cannot do it alone.  And there are times when we are able to step forward and support someone else with our compassion.  As members of a congregation, we provide support and we receive support from one another.  If you are a member facing a vulnerable time or health challenge or even a joyous life-change, please share it with our clergy.  And if you would like to join us for fun in the RS kitchen to mitzvah -cook, shop for,  or deliver a meal for a fellow member who can’t get to RS due to health, a recent birth, or mourning, please click here to sign up for RS Caring Community Mitzvah Meals!

 

 

Tzedakah on “Giving Tuesday”

Giving Tuesday!  You have heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and for the day after all of that consuming, now there’s Giving Tuesday! This Hanukkah and Thanksgiving season, give tzedakah to your favorite cause, or for suggestions, check out this month’s favorites in the Berkman Mercaz Limud (Religious School):  The students are giving this trimester’s collected tzedakah to Hazon (food sustainability), Chosen 300 Soup Kitchen, and Union for Reform Judaism Disaster Relief for the Philippines.

An Inscription for the Building Expansion

  • In addition to the name Congregation Rodeph Shalom, the front of the building expansion will include a purpose-driven quotation from Jewish tradition.  We value your ideas and hope you will participate!  Please submit your suggestion to the clergy and leadership through Charlene McDonald at cmcdonald@rodephshalom.org.

Bugs in My Kale: Bringing Intention to Our Food

Thank you to the many members of the community and beyond who have become deeply engaged in the conversation: “What is Your Food Worth,” a partnership with the Feinstein Center at Temple University.  Inspired this fall by Rabbi Kuhn’s Rosh Hashanah sermon, Professor Lila Berman’s keynote “A New Judaism from the Tabletop: Food and the Transformation of American Jewish Life,” the Hazon Food Festival hosted at RS, the screening of “A Place at the Table,” study sessions, the What is Your Food Worth blog, and our congregational blog posts, let us discover how now to move from theory to practice.  

Related thoughts from a recent D’var Torah…   Week after week I bring home my box of CSA vegetables.  Continue reading