Blogs

I have found nothing is more paralyzing to us than fear.  However, fear can do one of two things to an individual, it can strengthen them or weaken them.  Our tradition offers that the way to make fear strengthen us rather than weaken us is to turn to God.  Whatever your understanding of God, God can be accessed as a force of internal strength.  Consider the words of Psalm 27 as an antidote to fear that weakens. It is...Read more...

Here is a story I came upon in one of my books.  I hope it makes you laugh and think.  I have my lessons I draw from this story, I leave it to you to draw your own…

Lost and Found

The old rabbi had left the room for a moment, then returned to his studies, only to find his eye-glasses missing. Perhaps they were between the leaves of his book? No. . . . Maybe they were somewhere on the desk? No. Surely they were in...Read more...

My parents grew up in the south in Virginia in the 50’s and 60’s. I truly feel blessed that I never had to live in the south through that time. Simultaneously I am filled with a sense of dread, fear, horror and sadness that they had to witness humanity at its worse up close with no escape. I thought I would share an excerpt from my father’s book “Jewish meaning in a World of Choice”, where he describes what it was like to grow up in...Read more...

On May 19th-21st, members of Temple Beth David went to the Consultation on Conscience, a gathering of 1200 social-justice minded Reform Jews at the Religious Action Center (RAC) in Washington. The following is an article written by TBD member Lori Sudderth and her experience while attending the event:

I was one of the fortunate attendees of the Consultation on Conscience, my first experience of the conference, although I...Read more...

There are many in the Jewish world that lament the steep drop off in engagement of young men and women after their Bar or Bat Mitzvah.  As a result, a lot of money and time has been spent trying to figure out how to keep these young Jews engaged in their teen years.  What is interesting is that the solution can be found in a midrash (a teaching) from 2000 years ago:

R. Judah said in the name of Rav: The name of that...Read more...