We spent the last two weeks of Shabbat morning Torah study discussing the character of Rebecca and her relationship with Isaac. Judy Wildman led our discussion of Parshat Chayei Sarah on Nov 13 and I led the discussion of Parshat Toldot the following week on November 22. (more…)
Rabbi Julie met with congregants who heeded a call to discuss the Prayer for Israel, the Prayer for Our Country, and the Prayer for Peace that we as a congregation typically say during our High Holiday services. Everyone agreed that in the aftermath of October 7 in Israel and the rise of antisemitism in America we as a people are facing a dark time, but that’s all we agreed on. Otherwise, we were all over the map.
Given the range of feelings and opinions expressed in the meeting alone — with only a handful of congregants present — members of our community were invited to write their own prayers.
As the Jewish New Year peeks around the corner, it’s time to pause, reflect, and reconnect—with ourselves and each other. Selichot is a beautiful tradition of evening prayers that help us gear up spiritually for the High Holidays. (more…)
The notion of hardening the heart occurs 20 times in the book of Exodus.
Ten of these occurrences state either that Pharoah hardened his [own] heart (8:28, 9:34) or say that Pharoah’s heart hardened, suggesting that this was something that Pharoah did on his own (7:13, 7:14, 7:22, 8:11, 8:15, 9:7 , 9:35). The other ten occurrences attribute the heart hardening to God (4:21, 7:3, 9:12, 10:1, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10, 14:4, 14:8, 14:17).
The idea that God intentionally hardened Pharoah’s heart has always troubled me. Why would God do that? And how, if God made this happen, can we blame Pharoah and hold him accountable for his actions? (more…)
The traditional Torah reading for Yom Kippur Mincha is Leviticus 18, which lists forbidden sexual relations and activities. Mahzor Lev Shalem, as well as High Holy Day prayer books dating as far back as the 1950’s, offers as an alternative reading Leviticus 19: 1-18, the so-called Holiness Code. Some of you may recall that in the 1990’s, this was the reading we did for Yom Kippur Mincha. This year, Rabbi Julie, with the approval of the Ritual Committee, has decided that we will do the alternative reading. It was felt that the Shomrei Emunah community should be made aware of this well in advance of Yom Kippur in order to understand the rationale behind the decision.
