Community Blog
01/10/2020 11:28:41 AM
Welcome! Check out Rabbi Lizz's divrei Torah and other community updates here.
Voices, Visions, and Variety
10/15/2021 11:18:54 AM
Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Lech-Lecha, in which we start to learn about Abram. God forms a special covenant with Abram in this parasha which serves to effectively be the betrothal with the Hebrews that will develop into the ketubah signed with the Israelites at Mount Sinai. This parasha shows us a momentous moment and relationship for our peoplehood and faith, but...Read more...
Nibbles, Noshes, and Nachas
10/13/2021 10:06:22 AM
Nachas-A Yiddish word meaning that you are happy and proud, especially of the...Read more...
Faith and Fantastical Beasts
10/08/2021 01:17:17 PM
Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is, of course, Parashat Noach, in which we read about the story of Noah’s ark, the flood that covered the whole earth, and finally a strange little story about a group of people that tried to build a tower up to heaven and were punished with the creation of multiple languages.
I am often pretty ungenerous in my reading of...Read more...
Blessings, Beasts, Bereshit
10/02/2021 09:07:47 AM
Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bereshit, the beginning of it all! In chapter two of Genesis, we read that God presented the first human with animals to keep the human company and for them to be in partnership over the earth. The exact meaning of the verses are unclear, because it appears to be telling us that God created the animals with this purpose, although chapter one tells us that the animals were...Read more...
Nibbles, Noshes & Nachas
09/29/2021 12:34:56 PM
Nachas-A Yiddish word meaning that you are happy and proud, especially of the accomplishments of your children
Read more... Climate, Catastrophe, and Coming Together
09/24/2021 08:59:34 AM
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach! This Shabbat we celebrate Sukkot, the week-long festival of harvest and dwelling in temporary huts. As such, the Torah reading this Shabbat is a section from Exodus in which the rules of the three pilgrimage festivals, which include Sukkot, are given, along with the story of Moses desiring to...Read more...
Singing, Summarizing, and Simcha
09/23/2021 02:20:17 PM
Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Ha’azinu, in which Moses addresses the Israelites for the final time, singing them a song that warns of the future, containing blessings and curses. It is a beautiful song, but also quite dark in parts, and the parasha is the end of Moses’s life. Next Shabbat we will jump back to Exodus for...Read more...
Memory, Mourning, and Memorials
09/14/2021 01:19:46 PM
Good afternoon! How’s everyone hanging in there? We still have a while to go before the gates of repentance clang shut, before our prayerful fasting is over, but the Day of Atonement is more than half hour. What have you gotten out of these hours? What do you still hope to get out of the next hour or three before we say goodnight?
Soon, we turn...Read more...
Marching, Voting, and Repairing
09/14/2021 01:18:46 PM
Good morning and tzom kal. I hope your fasts are moving along as painlessly as possible. Our fasts this day are an opportunity to more deeply connect with our compassion, our humility, our sorrow over the evils of the world, and our gratitude of the beauty of the world and the bounty we enjoy most days.
We...Read more...
This is Not How We've Always Done It
09/14/2021 01:04:22 PM
Good evening and good yontif. We gather this evening for what is known as the Kol Nidrei service, named for the opening prayer we heard in its haunting melody earlier. We think of tonight and the 24 hours to follow as the holiest day of the year. A time of fasting and self-affliction, a time of communal mourning and repentance. The liturgy maintains a high church tone regardless of denomination and...Read more...
Leadership, Legacies, and Lifelong Learning
09/10/2021 10:47:22 AM
Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Vayeilech, or Deuteronomy chapter 31. Jews all over the world will read this segment of our holy scripture this Shabbat: some out of the sacred scroll, some from books, and some may not literally read it in its totality but learn about it in Torah studies and sermons. We welcome our distinguished guests to...Read more...
Hurts and Hindrances
09/07/2021 07:19:52 AM
Boker Tov and Shana Tova. Today is the birth day of the world! A day of celebration and sweetness. And a day of solemnity and repentance. A day of holding multiple truths.
So, you all probably know by now I listen to too many podcasts. With my queue constantly 300 episodes deep, I rarely re-listen to episodes that will...Read more...
Returning, Renewing, and Repenting
09/06/2021 10:14:13 AM
Good evening and gut yontif. We have been vaguely in the season of Teshuvah for a month now, and the High Holy Days are here. Are you prepared to Return, Renew, and Repent? I find I am not sure that I am this year. Even as I am happy to welcome so many of you back into our beautiful sanctuary, I cannot stave off the fear that this is also still unsafe. I cannot stave off the sadness that there are...Read more...
Covenants, Community, and Coequality
09/05/2021 10:21:16 AM
This weekend, I was blessed to officiate over a Baby Naming. Like many Reform baby namings, it happened a bit later than the 8th day. This year especially, with every gather so uncertain and anything that requires planning feeling so daunting, it has not been uncommon to wait several months to host such a ceremony. And so, it was with so much joy and relief that...Read more...
Bikkurim, Best Efforts, and Bringing Back Shemita
08/27/2021 03:25:28 PM
Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Ki Tavo, in which rules regarding the sacrifice of the first fruits are given, along with rules regarding tithes and Moses’s theatrical blessings and curses on Mount G’rizim and Mount Eival. Of the first fruits offerings, Rashi states: “Not all fruits are subject to the mitzvah of bikkurim (first...Read more...
Freedom, Fairness, and Fellowship
08/20/2021 02:08:52 PM
Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Ki Teitzei, which contains many reiterations of Levitical laws regarding sexual purity and marriage, familial obligations outside of the bedroom, commandments regarding the treatment of animals and slaves, and some laws regarding proper business practices.
Of the latter, I have previously considered the verses, “You shall not abuse a...Read more...
Read more... Countries, Cruises, and Coasts
07/14/2021 09:40:28 PM
If there is a destination near or far that calls to you, please let me know and I will work to create that perfect journey for you, your family, even your organization. Jewish themes are a focus, but I...Read more...
Read more... Korach, Kerach, and Caring
06/11/2021 11:26:08 AM
Shabbat Shalom! In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Korach, we read about a man who is dissatisfied with what he sees around him and dares to dream up a world in which he is recognized for his own importance and that all people are allowed to share in holiness and leadership. Depending on your position, you might see Korach as a democratizer unfairly...Read more...
Faith, Fighting, and Fervor
06/04/2021 12:09:00 PM
Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Shalach, in which Moses sends 12 scouts, one from each tribe, to scope out the inhabitants of the Holy Land and determine how they will go about conquering the land. All but two return certain of the undefeatable strength of those they wish to dispossess and only Caleb and Joshua assure Moses that the land is good and God is on their...Read more...
Ritual, Repression, and Reproductive Justice
05/21/2021 03:32:12 PM
Shabbat Shalom! In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Nasso, we read about the ordeal of the Sota, the suspected adulteress. If a man becomes suspicious of his wife, regardless of any evidence to support his jealousy, he may bring her before the priest in the Tabernacle and they will perform a ritual together to determine her innocence. The central act of...Read more...
Parashat Bemidbar: Taking Our Places
05/14/2021 12:12:14 PM
The summer is nearly here, more and more adults are vaccinated, and it seems new opportunities for gathering will become available. And yet, the language of “reopening” or “returning to normal” feels complicated for me. Setting aside for the moment all the issues that already existed in the old normal which were exacerbated and highlighted during the pandemic...Read more...
Nibbles, Noshes, & Nachas
05/12/2021 08:30:29 PM
Nachas-A Yiddish word meaning that you are happy and proud, especially of the...Read more...
Women's Worthiness
05/07/2021 08:39:03 PM
Shabbat Shalom! Happy almost-Mother’s Day, and shout out to our Sisterhood for such a beautiful Friday night service. This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Behar-Behukotai, in which we read about the last of the priestly laws and close the Book of Leviticus. Toward the end of the parasha, we read the verses:
Read more...
Violence, Vengeance, and Vindication
04/30/2021 01:38:43 PM
Shabbat Shalom! Tonight, we count day thirty-four of the omer, and honor a foundation of glory, Yesod she’beHod. Rabbi Jill Hammer’s Omer Calendar of Biblical women attributes this day and this point of the kabbalistic spiral of these days to Avigayil, one of David’s wives. In the book of Samuel, David is on the run from King Saul and encounters some difficulties with a landowner on whose land he is squatting....Read more...
