By Rabbi Betsy Forester
Last week, my colleague Rabbi Mendel Matusof wrote here about the great mystical sage, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (“Rashbi”), the Kabbalist and author of the Zohar, whose yahrzeit was observed on Lag BaOmer, this past Tuesday. I would like to extend that theme by sh…
By Rabbi Mendel Matusof
Tuesday, May 12 (erev begins the evening of Monday, May 11), we will be celebrating the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer. Lag BaOmer is the day Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai passed away in the second century CE. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was the first to publicly teach the myst…
By Rabbi Renée Bauer
As we begin the sixth week of the “Safer at Home” order from the governor and at least that long living with social distancing protocols, we are feeling the effects of this global crisis. Among the many responses we are feeling, we are grieving. While, tragically, …
By Rabbi Andrea Steinberger
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in…
Leonard Cohen, the singer and songwriter who died in 2016, wrote these words. He didn’t often talk about his songs and what they mean…
By Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman
Like most of us, I had never attended a Zoom seder before this year. It was a decidedly mixed experience. While I usually participate in or lead two seders a year, this year that number climbed to five. I had much to be thankful for. Zoom allowed me to celebrate wi…
