Blogs

It’s summertime, so I’ve got Joni Mitchell on my mind. Not only because she penned and performed some of my favorite summer anthems (“The Hissing of Summer Lawns,” “Chelsea Morning,” and “Woodstock,” anyone?), but also because her music contains a wealth of seemingly lighthearted lyrics that carry a profound resonance that I don’t often have time to relish during the chaos of the school year. This...Read more...

“We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are,” the writer Anais Nin famously remarked.

     The very same might be said of Torah, especially this Shabbat as we reflect on the portion Shelach Lecha.  The opening of this parsha tells a story that is all about how we see, and how we are seen.

     It’s about the images of ourselves that we carry in our mind’s eye…...Read more...

This past Tuesday evening our congregation celebrated Shavuot, with guests from Gishrei Shalom in Southington.  It is it is a beautiful holiday; at once a harvest festival and the Season of Revelation hearkening back to the Israelites first hearing the words of our ancient covenant at Mt. Sinai.  After seven weeks of counting the omer and, step by step, coming closer to this moment, we find that in the words of a past student of...Read more...

In his D’var Torah on the portion Bechukotai this week, renowned rabbi (and brilliant, prolific writer) David Wolpe reflects on the very first word: “im,” or if.  “If contains all of life’s regrets,” he writes.  “But even more, im is a word of possibility. God says, “IF you walk in My ways.” We hold the im in our own hands.

What he is pointing out here is that our lives are filled with uncertainty, as well...Read more...

“Teach Us To Number Our Days, that we may acquire a heart of wisdom.” 

(Proverbs 90:12)

In ancient days, our ancestors would offer their first barley sheaf of the season at the Temple in Jerusalem on the second day of Passover.  From there, according to a commandment in the Torah, they would...Read more...