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From Our Rabbis

Oct 2, 2020

Celebrating Sukkot and Finding JOY in Our Lives

By Rabbi Andrea Steinberger

The other day I sat with two college students and talked about how they are doing these days. They both spoke about how much they just needed to keep going: Get the online classes done. Write their papers. Not think too much. How they have dreams that are on hold…

Sep 25, 2020

A High Holiday Greeting for Unprecedented Times

By Rabbi Renée Bauer

Could any of us have predicted the year we have had when we were dipping apples in honey last Rosh Hashanah? It has been a very difficult year filled with the anxiety, loss and isolation caused by COVID, filled with pain as we watched more violence committed against Bl…

Sep 18, 2020

A Time for Judgment on Our Identity

By Rabbi Mendel Matusof

Jewish Identity. These two words mean so many different things to different people. However, it has always been that which holds us all together. Despite all our various Jewish flavors, we all share in Jewish Identity.

Or at least we used to.

As a campus rabbi for…

Sep 11, 2020

Practicing Hope: Our Sacred Task in the Process of Redemption

By Rabbi Betsy Forester

This feels like a strange time to celebrate the creation of the world and our place of honor as human beings in the world. Our world, our country, and Madison, in particular, are mired in despair. The pandemic, and the entrenched, structural, and global problems it h…

Sep 4, 2020

Celebrating the High Holidays in Difficult Times

By Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman

On two Sundays in August, one by one and at thirty-minute intervals, members of Shaarei Shamayim entered our building to chant their Torah portions for the High Holidays. Our videographer recorded each of them so we could play the recordings at our virtual High Hol…