May 31, 2020 It is Sunday morning. I woke up early today, unable to sleep, my mind replaying the horrifying image of George Floyd’s final minutes of life. I feel compelled to write to you this morning to express my rage, my heartbreak, my helplessness–yet again–as I sit from my place of white privilege and […]
Chaverim, As I sit in my office writing, the world outside is literally on fire. The smoke in the air is suffocating, and this from a fire all the way in Chico. The air feels like a fitting backdrop to the state of our world: on fire in every direction. There is immense fear, and […]
Chaverim, The older I get, and the more deeply my heart breaks at the lack of compassion and respectful communication in the world, the more I believe that our healing and survival are going to depend on people learning to talk to each other. Specifically, people who have opposing views of the world need to […]
Chaverim, Have you ever wondered why Yom Kippur is the best-attended day of the entire Jewish year? So many Jews belong to synagogues, send their kids to religious school, and only show up on the most serious and intense day of our ritual calendar. It really tells you something about the Jewish people! Why, for […]
Chaverim, Last year, I began to cultivate a friendship with Reverend Jim Burgquist of Orinda Community Church, after he invited me, Rabbi Gutterman and the Shir Joy band to provide the music for his worship service one Sunday morning. That experience was so joyful, and so hopeful, that it dared us to dream of creating […]
My dear friends and community, Fourteen years ago, as I was considering taking my first pulpit at a synagogue in Walnut Creek called Congregation B’nai Tikvah, I had a life-changing conversation with Stephen Richards, our cantor emeritus. I was hoping for some assurance in talking to him about what my experience would be like if […]
Chaverim, The author Elizabeth Gilbert once said in an interview that she thinks that she and her sister ended up as authors because as children, they were taught how to do boring things for long stretches of time. And that out of the boredom grew creativity. How many of us remember the experience of waiting […]
Chaverim, At our Passover seder every year, we always try to bring a few new songs and readings to enhance the seder, while of course continuing to do everyone’s favorite melodies and passages to honor their childhood customs. It is such a wonderful way of keeping our family traditions alive, while also adding new […]
