TEMPLE TALK | JULY 19
07/25/2024 08:42:22 AM
Last weekend, we celebrated Pride Shabbat in an explosion of color and beauty and joy as we affirmed our values-based commitment to inclusivity, representation, and love. We assembled a gorgeous, rainbow chuppah on our bimah – a wedding canopy that symbolizes our promise to our community that our Judaism affirms and sanctifies love between partners regardless of gender-identity and sexual orientation. And together we prayed...Read more...
TEMPLE TALK | JULY 12
07/19/2024 09:12:34 AM
A year ago, Rabbi Berezin and I sat down to workshop this Pride sermon. She said “You could talk about the legislative session,” and I said, “Absolutely not.” I needed time to figure out how to talk about it, first, so this is the sermon that I’ve spent a year figuring out how to write.
The 2023 session included attacks on drag performance, gender-affirming healthcare, and abortion access. Because of the sheer...Read more...
TEMPLE TALK | JULY 5
07/17/2024 04:09:14 PM
During Shabbat Evening Service, Rabbi Berezin spoke about the Jewish community’s roots in America and how a Rhode Island congregation welcomed George Washington to their community in the late 1700s and Washington’s response to them. Together with the congregation, they studied the texts together and took some lessons and historical perspectives from it. You can find the documents mentioned above...Read more...
TEMPLE TALK | JUNE 21
06/25/2024 09:22:45 AM
During Shavuot, I taught from Rabbi Donniel Hartman’s book “Who Are the Jews and What Can We Become?” As a brief summary of the themes, Rabbi Hartman is teaching about qualities within communities, the qualities of Pluralism, Tolerance, and what he calls deviant. Each of these qualities must be in balance with each other for a community to be in a healthy relationship with itself. Too much pluralism and you have moved to...Read more...
TEMPLE TALK | MAY 24
05/29/2024 04:19:42 PM
Did you ever have a week where it felt like everything was leading to basically the same conversation or the same point? Well, this week was like that for me. I got the opportunity to start reading yet another new book (I’m now in the middle, ok just finished the first chapter, of about 5 books at the same time), and once again a theme emerged. Values in conflict or at least in need of balance.
Rabbi Donniel...Read more...