Keep Fighting for the Children! What you can do
06/27/2018 02:23:28 PM
Rebbe Nachman of Bretslov taught, "אם אתה מאמין שיכולים לקלקל, תאמין שיכולים לתקן" "If you believe Read more...
Holding Each Other in this Difficult Moment in Israel
05/17/2018 09:54:13 PM
Shalom Hevre,
I am writing to you, yet struggling to find words. I am reaching out, heartbroken, after the most violent day in Israel/Palestine since the 2014 Gaza War.
SAJ is a diverse community. Each of us understands the situation and navigates the pulls for security and peace differently. And in this sacred container, we can hold...Read more...
Beginnings and Endings
01/10/2018 05:57:56 PM
Shalom Hevre,
As we closed a secular year and began another, I have been thinking about beginnings and endings; about closure and making peace with the past. It is also very timely that our end of the secular year marked the last parsha in the book of Genesis, the book with our ancestors' stories, and the first Shabbat in 2018 marks the beginning of Exodus, the story of the people and their/our journey from slavery to freedom and to...Read more...
Parashat Noach
10/20/2017 09:15:12 AM
Shalom Hevre,
This week is Parshat Noah. As some of you may know, according to Jewish tradition, Noah was no hero. In the torah, it reads that Noah was צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה בְּדֹרֹתָיו- he was righteous, pure in his generation. The rabbis wondered: Why qualify Noah's righteousness at all, naming it in comparison to his immoral peers?
One of the ways we know that Noah was not as...Read more...
Back to (Secular) School Wishes and Prayers
09/07/2017 01:57:19 PM
Yesterday and today, our children began a new school year. Many will hold signs in their hands and smile at the camera. A few will argue that they are too old for that! Many enter into new middle schools and high schools, filled with excitement and...Read more... Rabbi Lauren's Blog
06/16/2017 03:11:14 PM
Dear Hevre,
One of Judaism's most central principles, and one of the ideas that has shaped and nourishes our own Jewish neshama (soul), is the concept of B'tselem Elohim, that all human beings are made in the Divine image. For those who do not resonate with "divinity"...Read more...