The High Holidays are coming: Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on Sept. 13 Tomorrow is the first day of August; that means the High Holy Days are getting very near. For those who joined this group in the last 11 months let me repeat my annual admonition: DO NOT make the High Holidays your non-Jewish…
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What should you do when a loved one dies?
(Originally appeared July 2015 in Mixed and Matched column of the J-Weekly) Recently a woman wrote to me about her first experience with death and shiva as a Jew. Here’s what she said: I am a recent convert and a single mother. My sister died recently. When I got the news, I was paralyzed…
Read More »SF Jewish Film Fest is ON! + other activities
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival began its 2015 season last Thursday and they have their usual fabulous line up of films. I’ve told you in the past that it was suggested to me that I cosponsor films about Jewish & Muslim couples, typically living in Israel or Europe. But that topic doesn’t apply to…
Read More »Cantor Jennie Chabon on Learning from Strangers
I love this article by Cantor Chabon of B’nai Tikvah in Walnut Creek. Have you ever heard of ‘lamed vavniks’? No? Read on. A couple of weeks ago, Steve and I took our boys on a family trip to Portland for a few days. We rarely have free weekends to travel together because of Shabbat,…
Read More »How to Make a Shiva Call
This is an excellent article from Kveller on how to make a difficult shiva call. Frankly, all shiva calls are difficult. You are going to the home of a mourner and sitting with their terrible grief. How to Make a Tragic Shiva Call offers eleven rules that can apply to any shiva call. As the…
Read More »The Chuppah (Wedding canopy)
Having a chuppah is a beautiful Jewish custom. Chuppah, חוּפָּה in Hebrew means “covering”. On ReformJudaism.org, Rabbi Victor Appell describes the chuppah this way. The canopy under which Jewish couples stand when they are married is called a chuppah. The chuppah represents the new home a couple establishes through their marriage. It also represents the…
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