Rabbi 360

Today we mark Tisha B’Av (“the 9th of [the month of] Av”), which marks the historic destruction of the ancient Temples in Jerusalem, as well as other calamities that were visited upon the Jewish people throughout history. As a day of mourning, it is traditionally observed in a similar manner to Yom Kippur with a…

There has been a lot of discussion recently at how social media is having a negative impact on the mental health of youth. Most recently the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health warning about the dangers: “Children are exposed to harmful content on social media, ranging…

I know its a little late for Shavuot, but I wanted to share this reflection I wrote for the newsletter of the Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice NW on the themes of Shavuot and immigration. It was published in their May 19, 2023 newsletter. Shavuot, which we observe this month, is the festival of Torah,…

Last week we marked the festival of Shavuot, the holiday when we celebrate the story of Sinai–the revelation of the Torah by God through Moses to the Israelites. This holiday affirms the foundational idea of covenant and the centrality of Torah and sacred text in defining our relationship with each other and to the divine.…

Today is a minor, minor holiday with a major, major meaning. Today is Pesach Sheni, but you wouldn’t know it unless you looked at a Jewish calendar. It is a holiday so minor that there is no observance. (Well, there is a minor omission from the traditional weekday morning service, but that’s it.) Pesach Sheni…

For the past few weeks I’ve been teaching a Judaism and Baking class to our TBH kids as part of our youth education program. This year we shook up our education program, and so rather than year-long classes based on grade, our kids can sign up for quarterly multi-age electives based on topic. I taught…

Last week I made a difficult decision, a strange decision, and a good decision. And they were all the same decision. For the past year and a half I have been participating in the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program at our local hospital, Providence St. Peter. CPE is an accredited training program that trains chaplains–spiritual…

Sometimes when I teach about the origins of Judaism, I draw the distinction between “actual history” and “mythic history.” The mythic history is what we are reading right now in the Torah cycle: the stories of our ancestors, Abraham and Sarah and their descendants, who journey from Mesopotamia to Canaan. Their grandson Jacob moves the…

Do you remember the Highland Park shooting? I would not be surprised if you didn’t recall the details, considering that there are so many shootings that take place in our country on a regular basis. The Highland Park shooting, in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, took place this past Fourth of July during an…