Choosing Life, Blessing and Joy

Reading Nitzavim on Yom KippurReading Nitzavim on Yom Kippur
by Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell

“You stand this day, all of you, before your God, the Holy One of Blessing: you tribal heads, you elders, and you officials, all the men of Israel, you children, you women, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer … ” (Deuteronomy 29)

The opening of Nitzavim grabs us by our lapels and looks each of us directly in the eye. All of you, each of you, whether you stand at the top or at the bottom of the food chain, whether you command the attention and admiration of many or whether your labor goes almost unnoticed, you stand this day, poised to enter into a relationship with God, a relationship that demands your full attention.Continue reading

Practicle Preparation for a Spiritual Yom Kippur

It almost reads like a riddle:  Q: If you fast once Yom Kippur begins, and the candlelighting at the dinner before Kol Nidre brings in the start of the Holy Day, then how do you light candles and then eat dinner?   A: On Yom Kippur, you light the candles at the END of the dinner!  To enrich your holiday with this and many other Yom Kippur customs, visit, reformjudaism.org.  And challenge yourself to discover deeper meaning in the customs this year. See you at services!

September is National Recovery Month

Some inspiration for National Recovery Month:

For anyone who would find strength in Jewish insights for a path of recovery, Rabbi Kerry Olitzky’s book Twelve Jewish Steps to Recovery: A Personal Guide to Turning from Alcoholism and Other Addictions.

Thank you to Emma Fiebach for “My Taglit (Discovery)” about her search for balance and spirituality in Alcoholics Anonymous and to Robert Fiebach for “The RS Caring Community Supports Recovery.”

And I share my recent Bulletin article: “Everyone’s Steps to Repentance.”   Please contact me (rabbimaderer@rodephshalom.org) if you are a parent of someone struggling with addition and might be interested in participating in an upcoming parents’ support group.

Warm wishes for a sweet new year–Rabbi Jill Maderer

Everyone’s Steps to Repentance

You can picture the daily scene:  A father yells in anger as his daughter comes home in the middle of the night, after hours of drinking.  The entire household touched by her alcoholism, they begin to isolate from some friends, tell protective lies to other friends, and close down emotionally to one another.

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Elul Reflections: Rouse Us

How does tradition wake us up to change?  In Sephardic congregations, the shofar is sounded at the morning services during the month of Elul.  This is for the purpose of trying to wake us up to the serious task of tshuva, repentance, atonement and changing our lives.

“Whose voice do we hear beckoning us to change?  Is the shofar blast the sound of our own soul, the voice of our heart that we have sought to silence for so many years?  Or is it the voice of angels whom God has sent to remind us that we already know what we have to do?  Continue reading

Jewish Meditation and the Dislocation of the Journey

Please join us for Jewish Meditation before Shabbat services on Friday evenings, starting August 9, 5-5:30pm (you are welcome to arrive 4:45 to settle in; please be sure to arrive by 5:15 when the doors close for silence).  In these coming weeks we will focus on brief teachings from This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation, by Rabbi Alan Lew.

In an article this April, Rabbi Kuhn taught us: “A recent study found that Philadelphia has the highest rate of “deep poverty” – people with incomes below half the poverty line – of any of the nations 10 most populous cities.*  The study found that Philadelphia’s “deep poverty” rate**  is around 12.9%, or 200,000 people.”

Even as we look to the Prophets to inspire us that justice will someday flow like a river and righteousness like a mighty stream, while the homeless are in our midst, they have much to teach us.

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Exploring Hindrance on the Spiritual Path: Join us for Jewish Meditation this Friday, 5:00pm

Is God present in our obstacles?  Do hindrances lead us to liberation, growth and insight?  Now in the middle of the Omer, the countdown–or count up–to our Shavuot celebration of revelation, turn back to the Torah reading from the conclusion of Pesach.  In the Song of the Sea, the text tells the story of Egyptians chasing and then the Israelites rescue at the sea.  In this celebration of miracle in Hebrew verse, God’s miracles are described step by step:  God hurled horse and driver into the sea; God is our strength and might; at the blast of G’s nostrils, the waters piled up like a straight wall.

The list is about to be followed by Michamocha–the declaration of God’s wonders, but first a sentence, seemingly out of order–the text brings back a focus on the Egyptians:  “The foe said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, My desire shall have its fill of them. I will bare my sword. My hand shall subdue them.”Continue reading

Jewish Meditation

What is Jewish Spirituality?  A recent conversation with a few congregants helped to shine a light on the spiritual quest many in our community are pursuing.  Some of you have shared an interest in Eastern traditions of meditation and mindfulness and asked whether there is a place for such practice in Jewish life.  Absolutely!  We are not the first generation of the Jewish community to contemplate our purpose on earth, our connection with others, the nature of God, and the journey we take.

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Judaism and the 12 Steps: A Message for Everyone

What can Judaism offer to the spiritual journey in recovery?  The more I learn about Judaism and the more a learn about recovery, the clearer the answer becomes.  Jewish wisdom enriches the spiritual journey of recovery in many of the same ways Judaism deepens any of our spiritual journeys.

In Jewish recovery author and teacher Rabbi Kerry Olitzky’s discussion with us at Rodeph Shalom last night, “The 12 Steps: A Message for Everyone,” he spoke about how the core foundations of Judaism, Torah, community and God, can support someone in recovery and can support every one of us in the struggles of life we face.   I’d like to share some of my take-aways from Rabbi Olitzky’s teachings.Continue reading