Reflections on Tu B'Shevat
01/31/2023 04:16:51 PM
Just after mid-winter, in January or early February, the Jewish calendar brings us Tu B’Shevat, the "New Year of the Trees." Judaism’s connection...Read more...
Shavuot, Revelation & Pride Month
06/28/2022 09:59:01 AM
I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts about the ideas and thinkers that accompanied me on this walk. If you’d like more information, click on the hyperlinks.
I recently returned from a couple days of fishing in Oregon. On the way home, I stopped...Read more...
A Moment Away From Being Free
04/07/2022 09:28:23 AM
So, I’m walking in the Sonoma Regional Park. It’s the early evening and I am in deep thought over what to write for Passover, which is just a week away. I bet I look preoccupied, like when someone is talking to you while checking their...Read more...
The Eerie Echo of Purim in the War in Ukraine
03/14/2022 09:45:32 AM
We celebrate Purim this Wednesday. Most folks think of Purim as a pediatric event with costumes, hamantaschen, fun music and revelry; a good time for all ages, especially the kids! Celebrating Purim is a lot of fun, but even a cursory look at the the biblical book of Esther, the basis for Purim, reveals that it is not really a kid’s tale. What you find instead is a story full of dread and...Read more...
Return from Sabbatical
04/05/2021 08:03:29 AM
I returned from Sabbatical at the start of April and I’m gradually getting back into the familiar rhythm of life at Shomrei Torah. I’ve missed being with you, even virtually! Thank you for giving me the time to rest and recharge.
The pandemic kept me close to home, with many trips to the coast and days outdoors around Sonoma County. Being able to spend time reading, writing...Read more...
Personal Reflections on Race, Responsibility and the Jewish Community
06/15/2020 08:01:11 AM
Sometimes the Torah seems archaic and irrelevant. And then there are moments when the ancient text leaps across the 3,500-year divide as if the words were written for this very moment. That’s how I felt when I read this passage from last week’s portion:
Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married: “He married a...Read more...
Religious Imagination
05/18/2020 09:10:24 AM
Being hopeful is perhaps our greatest spiritual challenge. That is why I love Norman Fischer’s latest book, The World Could Be Otherwise.
“The imagination is powerful…(and) essential for our humanness.” He writes. “The Bible and other religious texts, folktales, myths, … poems, plays, novels, …music, ritual,...Read more...
The World Could Be Otherwise
03/11/2020 09:15:58 AM
Being hopeful is perhaps our greatest spiritual challenge. That is why I love Norman Fischer’s latest book, The World Could Be Otherwise.
“The imagination is powerful…(and) essential for our humanness.” He writes. “The Bible and other religious texts, folktales, myths, … poems, plays, novels, …music, ritual, dreams – all imaginative productions rise up from the unconscious to expand...Read more...
Noah and the Kinkade Fire
12/09/2019 03:56:32 PM
As the Kinkade fire ravaged northern Sonoma County, synagogues around the world were reading about Noah and “ha-mabul”, the great flood, the archetype of natural disasters.
According to the Torah God brought the flood to cleanse the earth of, “lawlessness” or...Read more...
A Guide to the Holy Days
09/10/2019 03:18:33 PM
By definition, Reform Jewish Practice is hard to summarize. Nevertheless, I thought it would be helpful to have an outline of the essentials.
The Month of Elul
We often think of the Holy Days as beginning with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur. In fact, the Yamim Noraim (The Days of Awe) officially begin a month before the start of Elul. I think of Elul as the month of...Read more...
Open Door, Open Heart
06/12/2019 03:19:39 PM
The summer Torah readings are all b’midbar, in the wilderness, part of the story of our ancient ancestors’ mythic 40-year trek from Egypt to the Promised Land. Most of the story is laid out in the Book of Numbers (the Hebrew name is actually B’midbar). Some of Numbers is captivating, like the story of Bilam and his talking donkey, and other parts of the book are, well… pretty boring, like all the censuses: the lists of the...Read more...
Marley, Reggae and Passover
04/17/2019 03:24:35 PM
With Passover just a few days away, I am thinking about Bob Marley. I fell in love with Bob Marley’s music before I fell in love with Judaism. I was a freshman in college at the University of Vermont, a long way from my home in Louisville, Kentucky and even farther from...Read more...
Freedom is an Inside Job
03/27/2019 03:31:11 PM
With Passover around the corner, my mind naturally turns towards its many themes. This year I am especially interested in how we can relate Passover to our inner lives.
The story of the Exodus from Egypt that we retell at Pesach is rich with metaphor. Many years ago, my...Read more...
Companionship or Death
01/09/2019 03:35:27 PM
As we approach Tu B’shvat, I am reminded of the story of Honi Hamagil, Honi the Circle-Maker and the carob tree.
Honi lived in Israel around the year 100 BCE. He was a shaman and a miracle-worker. He’s called “the Circle-Maker” because in times of drought...Read more...
Hanukkah and Hypocracy
12/05/2018 01:06:28 PM
“Hypocrisy of Hanukkah: It’s a holiday that commemorates an ancient battle against assimilation. And it’s the one holiday that most assimilated Jews celebrate.”
More interesting than the title is its point that the heroes in the story, “The Maccabees”, were more like the Taliban (my words) in their particular, tribal religious zealotry, and the villains, at least some of them, were more like us, assimilated Jews who were...Read more...
Another Day
11/19/2018 01:07:49 PM
It was a day like any other with the usual raft of email, follow-up phone calls, community building and program planning, a bar mitzvah lesson and a meeting with synagogue staff and then an emergency.
“I’ll come now. It will take me about a half hour to get there. I’ll see you soon.”
The way is familiar. We’ve shared a lot of life together. At the door, I get confused for a second but see the mezuzah and ring the...Read more...
Silence and Healing
05/11/2018 01:09:04 PM
’m writing this on the plane back from a seven-day silent retreat offered by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. It’s the first of three I will attend as part of a Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teachers program. The retreat was at Isabella Freedman, a rustic but beautiful Jewish camp, built around a small lake in New England’s Berkshire Mountains, 70 miles northeast of Hartford.
Modeled after Buddhist...Read more...
A Lesson in Hope
03/20/2018 01:12:08 PM
When you think about all the challenges we face, it is easy to be cynical or just give up. Remaining hopeful in a world where so much seems out of our control and where we know so much is an essential spiritual challenge.
Thank God for Pesach because Pesach is a lesson in hope. It’s all in this story…
The Israelites seem doomed from the very beginning: a nation of slaves pitted against the super power...Read more...
Trees and Hope: A Tu bish'vat Reflection
01/23/2018 01:50:14 PM
There is hope for a tree;
If it is cut down it will renew itself;
Its shoots will not cease.
— Job 14:7-9
The wind and the smell of smoke woke us. We stumbled out of bed and joined our neighbors in the cul-de-sac to stare at the raw, red glow lighting up the hills behind our houses. Forty miles per hour gusts of wind fanned the flames, like billows blowing into a cosmic furnace.
We grabbed family photos,...Read more...
What We Take With Us
11/08/2017 01:53:16 PM
Rabbi George’s talk, “What we take from our homes when we flee for our lives”, was delivered as part of the interfaith healing service at The Center for Spiritual Living a week after the fire:
The wind woke Laura up. She smelled smoke, walked out our front door into the court and saw the fire coming from Calistoga Road.
“George, you’ve got to get up….”
We live in Rincon Valley and the first two times we...Read more...
Mourning the Fire
10/27/2017 01:55:01 PM
Over the past week, I came to the realization that the dominant framework for what we are all experiencing after the fires is loss, grief and mourning, as if someone or something died.
When we lose a loved one, shock and bewilderment come first. Next, comes brain fog – “Why can’t I think straight!” –, an inability to concentrate and a sensation of being out of focus, or bogged down in the mud. Then comes irritation...Read more...
After Charlottesville
08/16/2017 02:38:41 PM
The conflagration of hate and bigotry in Virginia is appalling but not surprising; Trump’s cozy relationship with members of the alt-right (think Steve Bannon) and his inflammatory language has emboldened the haters and bullies in our country. Half-hearted in his condemnation of the perpetrators, the President ultimately defended the “very fine people” who marched alongside and in lockstep with the Nazis and the KKK.
As members...Read more...
Rabbi Michael Was Larger Than Life
08/14/2017 02:40:58 PM
These remarks were originally delivered at a conference of Reform Rabbis (PAR) in Palm Springs, the year of his death in 2006.
Michael Robinson was bigger than life in many ways. He was a tall man, well over 6 feet. I’m 5’ 10” and when we hugged, my head rested on his chest. He was a good looking man in an angular, proud, southern sort of way. He had sharp features, a roman nose, big, bushy eyebrows and piercing blue eyes. He...Read more...
An Ode to the Jewish-American Experience in Honor of Independence Day
07/03/2017 02:12:43 PM
Jews have been a part of the American experience from the beginning. We’ve shared in her trials and tribulations. We arrived with the first settlers in New Amsterdam, and later we participated in the great migration west. We’ve plowed her fields, fought in her wars, and in general, participated in almost every aspect of her short but great history.
We’ve been here from the beginning but for most, the...Read more...
Pesach and Hope
04/11/2017 02:15:38 PM
When you think about all the challenges we face it is easy to be cynical or just give up. Politics, the Environment, the Middle East; the list of serious issues is overwhelming, making it a great spiritual challenge to stay hopeful in a world with so many seemingly intractable problems. Thank God for Pesach because Pesach is a lesson in hope.
Let’s look at the story:
The Israelite’s seem doomed from the...Read more...
The Arc of History Bends Toward Justice
12/14/2016 02:17:10 PM
Now that the shock of the election has passed, we are in a state of limbo watching, wondering, worrying what President-elect Trump and his administration will be like. In the congregation emotions are running high; more than anything, people are afraid and their fears mirror where they feel vulnerable. A mom calls frightened for her daughter at college where sexual assault is already a serious problem; will Trump, a man that was caught on...Read more...
Interfaith Thanksgiving Service
11/15/2016 02:18:28 PM
The following remarks were delivered at the interfaith Thanksgiving service at Shomrei Torah on November 13.
What a challenging week it has been since the election on Tuesday. We have had two large gatherings here since the elections and the overwhelming feeling of the congregation has been one of mourning. The last time I remember such a collective sense of despair was 9-11. Just yesterday I was sitting with folks eating lunch after...Read more...
Election Got You Stressed? Just Breathe
11/04/2016 02:20:39 PM
As I write this, we are five days from the election. Oy! This political season has been the worst in memory. Everywhere I go people tell me how anxious and upset they are about the campaign, and the truth is, I feel the same way. We all want it to be over. But let’s face it: The divisions this election cycle has laid bare won’t go away after November 8th. What do we do?
Many years ago I was talking with Rabbi Robinson,...Read more...
Holding the Ladder
08/31/2016 02:22:39 PM
A story…
The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Hassidic movement, took a long time to pray over Shabbat. He would begin Shabbat morning services with his followers, and a couple hours later, they would be done yet he would still be engrossed in prayer. They would sit in quiet reverence and wait; twenty minutes, a half hour, even an hour until he was done. Together they would make Kiddush and eat a...Read more...
Shomrei Torah Update
07/01/2016 02:26:29 PM
“Summer time and the living is easy…” or not! While the Jewish calendar slows down in the summer, life in our community continues at a fast pace. In June we celebrated our last Shabbat with Cantor David. We are sad to see him go but happy he found his first full-time position (he was only quarter-time with us) close to home; Cantor David’s wife, Carla Fenves is an Associate Rabbi at Temple Emanu-el in San Francisco,...Read more...
