- IT TAKES SEVERAL READINGS TO GET THE FULL MEANING January 21, 2024
INQUIRE, STUDY DEEPLY, STUDY REPEATEDLY
Why do we read the entire Torah in annual cycles? Every year, starting and ending at Simchat Torah we read, in the same order, the same words from the five books of Moses. Is there not some concern the repetition will become rote or even boring? Might we not just stop ...
- A QUESTION OF SEQUENCE October 27, 2023
A QUESTION OF SEQUENCE
A friend pointed out an interesting anomaly in a portion of our liturgy. There are a number of places in the service, notably early in the Torah service where we say “HaShem Melech, HaShem Moloch HaShem Yimloch la’olam va’ed, God is King, God was King, God will be king for ever ...
- THE CHANGES TO THE AMIDAH FOR THE HIGH HOLIDAY SEASON August 22, 2023
THE CHANGES TO THE AMIDAH FOR THE HIGH HOLIDAY SEASON
Each year, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, there are changes and additions to the weekday and the holiday and Shabbat Amidah. There are changes to all of the first three blessings. To one of the thirteen weekday petitions, and to the last two. Taken together, ...
- SOUNDING THE SHOFAR DURING ELUL August 23, 2022
SHOFAR BLOWING DURING ELUL
During the month of Elul, the last Hebrew month before Rosh Hashanah, the Shofar is sounded at every morning service except Shabbat. In our congregation we also blow shofar at night, a custom we developed for congregants who, because of work schedules etc., could not make the morning minyan. The sounding of ...
- DEUTERONOMY AS A METAPHOR FOR GROWTH August 8, 2022
DEUTERONOMY AS METAPHOR
The book of D’varim (Deuteronomy) can be looked upon as a metaphor for personal growth. Let’s start with a look at Moses at the burning bush in Exodus, chapter 3. Moses has, rather impetuously, killed an Egyptian taskmaster and had to flee to Midian. Now he is tending his father-in-law’s sheep in ...
- OBSERVING THE FAST DAYS July 10, 2022
THE FAST DAYS
I was thinking about the rituals commemorating the humiliating defeat of Israel/Judea culminating with the destruction of the first and second Temples first by the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE and later the Roman Empire in 70 CE. Our rituals concerning national calamity involve scriptural readings, changes to the prayer service ...
- KABBALAT SHABBAT February 22, 2022
KABBALAT SHABBAT
One of the most beautiful moments in the week is the time, late Friday afternoon, when the work week is finally ending and Shabbat is about to begin. It is, for those of us who take Shabbat at all seriously, a special, spiritual mystical time. It is a moment when we can feel ...
- APPLYING SPIRITUAL GROWTH TO LIVING ONE’S LIFE February 2, 2022
APPLYING SPIRITUAL GROWTH TO LIVING ONE’S LIFE LIFE
Recently, a friend who had read most of my posts asked how my spirituality and my relationship to the prayers and the texts affects my day-to-day life. How does this change my life, my behavior, my relationship with the world? I have paraphrased his question a bit, but ...
- PARTICIPATION IN THE SHALIACH TZIBBOR’S REPETITION OF THE AMIDAH January 7, 2022
THOUGHTS ON CONGREGATONAL “PARTICIPATION”
IN THE REPETITION OF THE AMIDAH
The Amidah is the central section of the traditional prayer service. It consists of 19 separate prayers or B’rachot on ordinary weekdays, seven on Shabbat or a Holiday and what feels like 15 or 20 million on the High Holidays, especially Rosh Hashana Musaf. The general traditional ...
- THE SPIRITUAL AND COMMUNAL IMPORTANCE OF THE DAILY MINYAN December 20, 2021
THE SPIRITUAL AND COMMUNAL IMPORTANCE OF THE DAILY MINYAN
The daily minyan, morning and evening, is one of the most important services (pun intended) a synagogue can provide its community. The synagogue is, by definition fact, a faith-based community organization. Certainly, one of the ways of expressing that faith is by daily prayer. Jewish law and ...
