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Yizkor Book – September 2023 ∙ Tishrei 5784
Please find attached the Yom Kippur Yizkor book for Semptember 2023 (Tishri 5784)
New Website Orientation Recording
Here is the recording from the zoom session to help with orienting to the new website. Please feel free to contact the office with any additional questions....
High Holidays 2022 Literary Supplement
Dear friends, So much has happened since the end of the High Holidays, a little more than a month ago, but the experience of sharing these solemn days with you continues to reverberate somewhere in my spirit. What satisfied me most was how truly "communal" they...
High Holiday 2021 Literary Supplement
Dear friends, I'm so proud to be able to offer you this "literary supplement", including all of the poetry, reflections, divrei Torah, and, yes, rabbinic sermons, that were generated for this year's High Holiday celebration. Just click on the title in the header to...
D’var Torah 2-6-21: Yitro – Daniel Berlin
THE VOICE/KOL AT SINAI The Hebrew word KOL (KUF-VOV-LAMED) has three meanings: voice, sound, and thunder. KOL plays a significant role at Mount Sinai. Just before Revelation there are thunder-sounds, KOLOT. There is a SHOFAR sound/KOL, that grows increasingly stronger...
D’var Torah 1-23-21: Bo – Rabbi Devorah Jacobson
Like the cursor on my computer screen, I want to hover for a while on the verses in this week’s Torah portion that describe that moment when the Israelites are racing to freedom. Ex. 12: 33 So the Egyptians urged the (Israelite) people on, impatient to have them leave...
High Holiday 2020 Literary Supplement
Dear Friends, I've had a few days to rest, and I've put up my Sukkah, but the experience of the High Holidays is still fresh. I've appreciated the notes I've received, expressing pleasure and surprise that these days were meaningful, despite the strange...
400 Years: Truth & Healing for the Next Seven Generations
"400 Years: Truth & Healing for the Next Seven Generations" SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18 2:00-4:00 pm This online program, on YouTube and Facebook, is a partnership between Interfaith Opportunities Network, Interfaith Council of Franklin County, over 20 faith communities,...
Tikkun Olam – Week of October 5
TIKKUN OLAM OPPORTUNITIES AND UPDATES Week of October 5, 2020 The Tzedek Racial Justice Initiative had a general meeting in late August with reports from the subcommittees. Please click HERE for the minutes of that meeting. The next general meeting will be held on...
D’var Torah 7/25/20: Devarim – Krista Harper
Krista Harper on her 50th birthday: I'd like to thank the Rabbi for giving me the chance to say a few words about today's parsha. In a few moments I will turn 50 years old, and so this parsha marks that milestone for me, and I'm grateful to my family and friends who...
Divrei Torah 5/30/20: Adult B’nai Mitzvah
DIVREI TORAH ADULT B’NAI MITZVAH Shabbat Shavuot 5780 * Krista Harper Reading Parsha Re'eh, one gets a strange sense of déjà vu, as if we have already read these passages somewhere before. As is the case with much of D'varim, almost everything mentioned in the...
$$ for Food
COVID-19: HOW YOU CAN HELP OUR AMHERST AREA COMMUNITY IN TWO WAYS AT ONCE! The Tikkun Olam Committee is sponsoring a $$ for FOOD collection effort to help both people in need of food AND our area restaurants. We are asking you to donate money so that we can join our...
D’var Torah 12/14/19: Vayishlakh – Rabbi Deborah Waxman
Shabbat shalom. In this d’var torah, I want to talk to you about the possibility of meaning and gratitude and love in our complex and sometimes frightening world. As we reflect on the story of Jacob and his choices, and Leah her choices, I want to take muscular hold...
Yom Kippur 5780/2019: The Dangerous Sanctuary – RBW
Going into my second year of rabbinical school, I was awarded a scholarship to offset my tuition, but it came with a string attached. It was endowed by a congregation in the west of the state, with the expectation that the recipient would join them over a weekend in...
Kol Nidre 5780/2019: The Slippers of Abu Kassem – RBW
For my friend Jane, Hannah bat Shlomo, of blessed memory. A few months later, I found, in the cup holder of my car, one of the cheap blue surgical masks I put on when I came to visit her in the final weeks. I spent a lot of that time talking to her with the lower half...