Beth Shalom

Shanah Tovah! A Good New Year.

This is a very special time of the year: we celebrate the High Holidays - Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kipur - and then also Sucot and Simkhat Torah. This is the time of the year when most Jews get together, with family and friends, and also when most people will be at synagogue for services. At the synagogue, you will hear plenty from our texts and form the rabbi about the meanings and significance of these days with all their symbols and rituals. In this short message, I want just to briefly present some core themes of these days: (read more)

A Rosh HaShanah Exercise: Balancing our Priorities

Can you be in two places at the same time? It turns out to be, that what we think is the obvious answer is not the correct answer. Those who study quantum physics have a lot to say about how an object may be in two places at the same time, but I am referring to other kind of phenomena, closer and more familiar to us: Jews. Indeed, if you are a Jew, and especially if you are an American Jew, you are not only in two different places, but you are moving in two different and opposing directions at the same time. (read more)

Counting the days, or making the days count?

The Hebrew calendar month of Tishrei, which oscillates between September and October, is called in the Bible “the month of the mighty in festivals”. Having just celebrated Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukot within just a couple of weeks, we can still appreciate this 3,000 year old name. In Biblical times, people would celebrate the holidays in ways similar to ours; but in our celebration there are elements they did not have –such as the synagogue and our prayer book. And they didn’t have any Rabbis either yet, so they probably did not hear many sermons (for better and for worse). (read more)