This past year has been full of tremendous joy and unbound sorrow – exquisite light and dreadful darkness. In April I went to Israel and helped to remove floral deformations from several mango orchards in the north. I was in Haifa for Shabbat on April 13. I travelled to Tel Aviv the next morning, trying… Read more »

As I embark on three years as your president, During this season we must do more than repent Not just apologies and absolving our sins May this be the time when real learning begins. Up high in the balcony is my preferred seat Our return here means another year is complete Gazing out at pews… Read more »

“Leopards break into the temple and drink all the sacrificial vessels dry; it keeps happening; in the end, it can be calculated in advance and is incorporated into the ritual.” ― Franz Kafka, The Zürau Aphorisms Kafka’s aphorism feels strikingly similar to the Jewish approach to sin and teshuvah. No matter how hard we try,… Read more »

There’s a poem by Yehuda Amichai that I love. It’s untitled, simply numbered “69,” and it appeared in a 1977 volume called Time. The poem is a Bar-Mitzvah poem, a blessing. In it, the speaker begs to kiss his young son once more, “while you still love it,” while the boy is still a soft-skinned… Read more »

The month of Elul carries us inextricably toward the three days of the year when we will spend quite a few hours in the synagogue.  What will we make of that time? Our high holiday prayer book, the machzor, is a hefty volume full of so many words – confessions, supplications, hopes expressed and failings… Read more »