I pause from the weekly cycle of Torah readings and take note of the procession of the seasons and of the holidays: we have reached Chanukah, the Festival of Lights. Part of the genius of the Jewish Holidays is that they resonate on many levels of experience. As we travel through the Jewish year, the […]
Archive | Jewish Holidays
Honoring the Life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
When moral giants depart from the world – in Hebrew we call them tzaddikim, tzaddikot – they leave a legacy of inspiration for us. This year we Americans lost two moral giants, Congressman John Lewis this past July and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Erev Rosh Hashanah, just 9 days ago. Their lives, what they […]
Hagar, Ishmael and Black Lives Matter
This sermon was presented at Rosh Hashanah services at the Woodstock Jewish Congregation on September 19, 2020. Reflecting on the Torah portion that is read on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Jonathan compares Hagar’s anguish as her young son Ishmael is dying of thirst to that of Black mothers today who know they […]
Passover: Our Season of Love and Liberation
This weekend my dear friend, colleague, author, composer and pioneer in Jewish spirituality Rabbi Shefa Gold will be leading a workshop under the auspices of the Lev Shalem Institute of the WJC entitled “Exploring the Landscape of Love Through the Song of Songs.” Registration for the weekend is now closed, but I wanted to make […]
In Praise of “The New Haggadah”
V’chol ha’marbeh l’saper b’yetziat Mitzrayim harei zeh meshubach. And whoever expands upon the story of the Exodus from Egypt is worthy of praise (from the Passover Haggadah) As is my custom, as Passover approaches, I took down some various editions of the haggadah from my fairly extensive collection on my bookshelf so that I could […]
Passover Reflections 2013
Dear Friends, At the Seder, after telling the story of Passover and singing “Dayenu”, we are instructed to lift our cup of liberation and recite what to me is the most important line in the Haggadah: “B’chol dor vador – In every generation we must view ourselves as personally traveling from oppression to liberation.” Whether […]
Yom Hashoah 5770/2010: German Scholar Thorsten Wagner Visits the Woodstock Jewish Congregation
In April 2009 I traveled to Germany for the first time. I was privileged to lead a group of 30 travelers from the Woodstock Jewish Congregation and the wider community on an intensive – and intensely emotional – tour of Berlin and of the historical site of the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Here is what I wrote from […]