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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My Taglit (Discovery)

by Emma Fiebach

In June of 2012, the day I graduated from Drexel University, I received the most prophetic gift from our Rabbi Emeritus, Rabbi Alan D. Fuchs and his wife Carol Fuchs, Oh the Places You’ll Go, by Dr. Seuss.  I smiled at the novelty of the gift, having no imagination for what lay ahead of me in the months to come.

But let me rewind even more, to the year 2006 when I was nineteen when I stayed in a rehab facility for alcoholism to receive treatment.

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Elul Reflections: The Black Zero of Beginning

A poem by Marge Piercy:

The Head of the Year

The moon is dark tonight, a new

moon for a new year.  It is

hollow and hungers to be full.

It is the black zero of beginning.

Now you must void yourself

of injuries, insults, incursions.

Go with empty hands to those

you have hurt and make amends.

Continue reading

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

Elul Reflections: Loud Clamoring and Silent Stirring

 “The great shofar is sounded, and the still, small voice is heard.”  We read in the Un’taneh Tokef prayer, one of the central prayers of our High Holy Day liturgy, Uv’shofar gadol yitaka, v’kol d’mamah dakah yishama. How do we pay attention to the both the loud and the silent in our lives? What is clamoring loudly for your attention and what is stirring silently within you? In this month of reflection, we attune our souls. We practice listening to the loud and the silent, and we prepare to heed both.  (Please join us as we practice paying attention at weekly Friday 5pm Jewish Meditation, before our Shabbat service).

L’shanah tovah–Your RS Clergy

Elul Reflections: I Am Safe

New words for old ideas as we prepare for the new year… Here is a take on Psalm 27, the Psalm read daily in the month of Elul.

With the living and eternal God as my goal and guide
fear and anxiety preempt no place in my life.
All the evil in the world is not able to destroy God,
nor can it destroy anyone within God’s loving embrace.
The very legions of hell lay siege to my soul,
only to be thwarted by a power far greater.Continue reading