Archive | Teachings

We do not refuse to pray; we abstain from it. We ring the hollow bell of selfishness rather than absorb the stillness that surrounds the world, hovering over all the restlessness and fear of life – the secret stillness that precedes our birth and succeeds our death. Futile self-indulgence brings us out of tune with […]

Growing up in a religious Jewish home, I went to synagogue every Saturday for Sabbath services. I learned the traditional liturgy by rote. This wasn’t a bad thing – it had a musical feel to it, familiar and comforting. But I never thought about what the prayers were saying, or what they meant. As an […]

Dear Friends, I am approaching the last few days of my journey in New Zealand, and it has been an absolutely marvelous trip both as a teacher and as a tourist. I just completed a very rich week of teaching with a wonderful group of folks at Temple Sinai, the Progressive synagogue of Wellington, New […]

You can now listen to Rabbi Jonathan’s fall 2014 classes online! If you weren’t able to attend his classes – or if you were there and want to listen again at your leisure, follow this link to recordings of Rabbi Jonathan’s 6-week course “Let It Go – The Personal, Environmental, and Spiritual Practice of Shmita.

You can now listen to Rabbi Jonathan’s fall 2014 classes online! If you weren’t able to attend his classes – or if you were there and want to listen again at your leisure, follow this link to recordings of Rabbi Jonathan’s weekly Torah study class and enjoy!

Following is the talk I offered on Kol Nidre Eve, October 3, 2014 at the Woodstock Jewish Congregation: I wrestled this year with all of the subjects I have wanted to discuss with you. Over the past months my attention has been relentlessly drawn outward, primarily to the Middle East: the complete collapse of society […]

If You Only Say One Blessing… There is a Jewish blessing – a bracha – for just about every occasion and experience: blessings of gratitude before and after eating, before washing your hands, for putting on your shoes, for waking up in the morning, for studying Torah, welcoming a festival, seeing beautiful sights, upon hearing […]

The Vidui, the communal confession of sins that we chanted just a few moments ago, is actually an elaborate acrostic. The ancient litany makes its creative way through the entire Hebrew alphabet, enumerating all of the ways that we have missed the mark, from Aleph to Tav, the Hebrew A to Z. The opening lines […]

Over the years I have waxed rhapsodically about the countless layers of meaning and connection encoded into the Torah. Well, as I continue to study, it only keeps getting richer, and I am going to take you today on a little journey through our scribal tradition that carries a deep and important teaching for us […]

You may have heard stories about the ancient sages Hillel and Shammai. During the 1st Century B.C.E. Hillel and Shammai shared leadership of the Sanhedrin, the deliberative body and high court that determined all matters of Jewish practice and behavior. Hillel was a poor immigrant from Babylonia who came to the Land of Israel to […]