Rabbi's Blog

Happy May Temple Beth Israel, With Memorial Day parades and barbeques, May is the unofficial start to the summer season. In May, we also often celebrate Shavout, which marks the unofficial end to the major Jewish holiday calendar season, as it is the last of the shalosh regalim; the three pilgrimage festivals (along with Sukkot and Passover) when farmers in ancient Israel brough their first fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem. On Shavout we also read the Ten Commandments to com

Hooray, we have finally reached March, which means spring is right around the corner! After what has been a brutal winter, the coldest in recent memory, we can set our sights to warmer days, more sunshine, the blossoming of flowers, and hopefully less winter weather. At the beginning of the month, we turn the clocks forward and after a few months without major Jewish holidays, we begin to awaken from the festival-less doldrums. As we turn the calendar to March, we usher in t

February is an odd month on the calendar. While there aren’t any major Jewish holidays, the month is filled with humorous attempts by humanity to distract us from the fact that February still feels like the dead of winter. Groundhog Day: A Quirky Tradition Groundhog Day is the quintessential “weather-related” holiday. The entire event focuses on whether a rotund rodent, known as Punxsutawney Phil, is frightened enough by his own shadow to remain burrowed for another six weeks

Happy March Temple Beth Israel, As we turn the calendar to March, we usher in the Hebrew months of Adar , followed by Adar II ; a time according to our rabbis, when we increase our joy each day. As the days pass, we focus our hearts and our souls in preparation for the celebration known as Purim . The Jewish New Year and the Hebrew calendar, Rosh Hashanah , don’t offer the same rowdy, ruckus and light-hearted affair that the Gregorian calendar allows for on Dec.31st/Jan.1st.

The beginning of February is a beautiful time in our Torah’s journey. We often read about the Passover saga, the parting of the Red Sea, and the wonders of receiving the Torah at Sinai. While we read these events in late January or early February, they feel more like Spring holidays- an odd misplaced distortion of time and celebrations. As we have arrived at a point in the Jewish calendar, in-between Tu B’Shevat and Purim, where the peak of winter has reached its darkest, col

Happy January Temple Beth Israel, In what is generally understood to be a quite time on the Jewish calendar, the dead of winter allows us a chance to catch our collective Jewish breaths in between the joyful chaos associated with our Jewish holidays. It was an absolute joy to celebrate Chanukkah together with so many of you, both in our community wide lighting in Trinity Park as well as the Chanukkah party held at Temple Beth Israel. It warmed my heart to see new and familia