My friends, please don’t make the High Holiday services the ones you use to introduce your non-Jewish loved one to a Jewish service. The liturgy of the High Holidays has developed for hundreds of years to be intense. It is not a light hearted experience. There is lots of Hebrew and many dark messages. The…
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High Holidays: I’ve been here before
I’m quite fond of Rabbi Raffi Asher of B’nai Tikvah in Walnut Creek. I have known him a long time. He is very tall and always seems to bend slightly forward to come closer to short people like me. I like what he wrote about the High Holiday experience – I’m a fan of the film…
Read More »Elul: a month of preparation
I love the Jewish month of Elul; we are in Elul now. Much as I hate to see the summer fade I love the renewal of communal life that comes with the fall. Now the synagogues rev up, there is the bustle to prepare for the holidays, the round up of volunteers who help with…
Read More »Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur begins Wednesday night I hate fasting. Let me count the ways. 1. I hate having to get off coffee and caffeine so that I won’t have a headache all day. 2. I hate feeling weak and lacking focus. 3. I hate being thirsty and that dry sound your mouth makes. 4. I hate…
Read More »Shana Tova!
Shana Tova! Happy New Year! Do Rabbis have a Sense of Humor about the High Holidays? Take a look at this video and you tell me! That’s Rabbi Bloom of Temple Beth Abraham in Oakland. You can join him for Yom Kippur or all year long on Shabbat. Call the synagogue for more information: 510-832-0936….
Read More »Yom Kippur thoughts
Here’s what Rabbi Roberto Graetz of Temple Isaiah in Lafayette sent to his congregation just before Yom Kippur. We are reaching the holiest of all Jewish holy days. It is a day of fasting and prayer, of reflection and silence. Rabbi Larry Tabick in a light tone reminds us of the essential nature of the…
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