rabbi989

A Month of Receiving We are in the counting. Every night between Pesach and Shavuot, Jews around the world count a number aloud, marking the journey from Egypt to Sinai. The counting tells us something true about Jewish life: freedom by itself is incomplete. We leave Mitzrayim so that we can stand at Sinai, and we stand at Sinai so that we can receive. May at Temple Beth Sholom is shaped by that arc of receiving. On Thursday, May 21, we will gather for an evening of Shavuot study from 7:00...

At sundown on Tuesday, Israel observed Yom HaZikaron, the day for the fallen. A siren sounded across the country and everyone stopped. Cars on the highway. Shoppers in the supermarket. For two minutes, a country mourned together. And then, before the grief could settle, the day ended. Memorial Day became Independence Day. The flags went up. The parties began. This is not how grief works here. In America, our Memorial Day and Independence Day celebrations couldn’t be less directly connected....

On January 10th of this year, a 19-year-old man drove to Jackson, Mississippi in the middle of the night, removed his license plates, broke a window, poured gasoline across the floors of a synagogue, and lit it on fire. He called the building the "synagogue of Satan." When he confessed to his father, he said he had "finally got them." He was talking about Jews. He was talking about us. Beth Israel Congregation is a Reform synagogue. It is the only synagogue in Mississippi's capital city, and...