Thinking about Christmas I have spoken to several people about Christmas and I want to reiterate what I hope you all will do – don’t try to change your observance of the holidays now. It’s too late in the year to suddenly tell your sweetheart that you can’t bear to have a Christmas tree…
Read More »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! 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 »Holidays just ahead: Lag B’Omer and Shavuot Lag B’Omer One-day suspension of the traditional mourning period during Sefirat HaOmer (“The Counting of the Omer”). On this day, a plague afflicting Rabbi Akiva’s students ceased. Also commemorates Bar Kochba’s recapture of Jerusalem from the Romans. Celebrated with picnics and nature outings. Sefirat HaOmer is a seven-week…
Read More »Let’s begin with the non-traditional dishes. I took a cooking class with a friend on Moroccan Cooking, here in Oakland from a gal named Dara who has The Sage Table. (You can find her online at www.thesagetable.com. I think she might be Jewish.) When I looked at the recipes she had taught us every single…
Read More »The Seder Plate You can go here for an online visual of the plate and it’s parts. http://urj.org/holidays/pesach/plate/ The First step preparing for Passover – cleaning In most cultures there is a “spring cleaning” that takes place. For Judaism, it is specifically attached to the commandment to get rid of all leavening and associated…
Read More »Our weekly email goes out to hundreds of interfaith couples & families in the Bay Area. Topics cover the many questions and mysteries that interfaith couples want answered.