TEMPLE TALK | MAY 12
05/17/2023 03:17:40 PM
Jubilee and the Concert of Lights, how can we remit the debt for living generations?
For years and years, the music lay hidden, hidden in the minds of people who lived through hell. Hidden in the attics of homes, storage long forgotten. Hidden from the living as a reservoir of creation from the dead. The music was hidden from the world, from performance, from the living. Last week we were blessed to hear and...Read more...
TEMPLE TALK | MAY 5
05/11/2023 11:14:58 AM
Rabbi Berezin's Sermon, "The Spirituality of Counting," from Friday, May 5, discussed the counting of the Omer.
"During these 50 days [of the Omer], we are on a spiritual journey. We begin counting the Omer at the second seder, and we conclude the Omer with the celebration of Shavuot. We begin by leaving Egypt, by remembering the hard-won freedom that came after 400 years of suffering and struggle. We go...Read more...
TEMPLE TALK | APRIL 28
05/04/2023 10:51:45 AM
Yesterday as I sat writing my sermon, I was struggling for hope, I asked the question, when the law of the land is antithetical to your convictions of right and wrong what do you do? How do you balance the “rule of law” with this injustice of laws? What is the appropriate way to...Read more...
TEMPLE TALK | APRIL 14
04/19/2023 02:24:22 PM
In the Torah the story of the consecration of the Mishkan, the Wilderness Tabernacle, is told more than once, with a different emphasis each time. At the end of Exodus, we have the story told by the artisans who did the work. At the beginning of the Book of Numbers, the chieftains of Israel tell the story of bringing their gifts. Here in Leviticus, the book of the Torah focuses on the priests, the story is told from the point...Read more...
TEMPLE TALK | April 7
04/13/2023 10:59:04 AM
Shabbat Shalom!
Thank you Rabbi Appel, Rabbi Berezin and Cantor Alexander
3 weeks ago I attended my first meeting as a member of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) North American Board (NAB). The URJ is the umbrella organization that links together more than 800 synagogues including Temple Israel and more than one million Reform Jews in North America. It is a privilege to follow in the...Read more...