From the Rabbi

WHEN YOU CAN’T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UP AND DOWN ….

It's Adar, Purim approaches, so of course I’m thinking costumes! And, of course, amidst the merry-making, there are serious themes, compounded this year -not for the first time – by our awareness of wider-world issues.

There is also an overlay within the tradition, and that is the attention paid in this week’s parsha to the matter...Read more...

SEEKING ILLUMINATION FOR UNIVERSAL RIGHTS

Most years around this date I write about the anniversary of the United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UHDR), passed by that new institution’s General Assembly on December 10, 1948.

Last year, I noted:

A parallel document, the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, passed on another date this month...Read more...

Tishrey - A Month for Reconciliation, Remembrance, Recommitment

There are so many features of the High Holiday, including themes, that resonate or overlap with our “other” civilization. In Reconstructionist-speak, drawing from the work of Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, we live in two civilizations, our civic and Jewish cultures. So while there is no secular new year in September, it is a time when many things begin...Read more...

HERE AND THERE

Here: the memes proliferate, the slogans fly, the protests surge. 

There: the suffering mounts, intolerably. 

Here, in our non-war torn lives, it’s hard to know how much to tap into the enduring torment that prevails over there - amongst those struggling to survive in Gaza, or those waiting for their loved ones taken hostage on October 7 to return – and still be able to maintain that...Read more...