Hear Our Voice

As a kid growing up in Massachusetts, Passover always fell just as the world was coming back to life. The air smelled cleaner, and the sky was bluer and, because my mother had a knack for making things beautiful, the yard was filled with daffodils and crocus that she planted in the fall. And the Seder table was just as lovely - set with beautiful china, silver, and flowers. While it might seem superfluous, Jewish tradition actually...Read more...

Yesterday, in an episode from the podcast, “Call Me Back,” I heard Israeli author and public intellectual, Yossi Klein Halevy, prophecy these words: 

“October 7 was the collapse of the Jewish state. It was a one-day collapse, but we experienced a kind of pre-enactment of the destruction of the state of Israel, and this is a war (the Israel-Hamas war) to reestablish the...Read more...

This is Your Lucky Day!

CSK is launching something very exciting! With a big shout-out to Jon Sheiman, our volunteer CSK Digital Gig-Worker, CSK will soon and regularly invite you to celebrate with us your BIRTHDAYS and ANNIVERSARIES, as well as to mourn and remember your loved ones, lost to the world when their YARTZEITS arrive.

Now, CSK has...Read more...

Exodus 28:2 from Parashat Tetzaveh

וְעָשִׂ֥יתָ בִגְדֵי־קֹ֖דֶשׁ לְאַהֲרֹ֣ן אָחִ֑יךָ לְכָב֖וֹד וּלְתִפְאָֽרֶת׃ 

Make sacral vestments for your brother Aaron, for dignity and adornment.

In this week’s parshah (Torah portion), Tetzaveh, the book of Exodus goes into depth about the clothing to be worn by Aaron and the High Priests...Read more...

This week’s Torah portion, “Mishpatim,” with its myriad of laws to govern mostly civic and familial dynamics, is often understood as an expansion of the iconic “Ten Commandments,” presented to the Israelites in last week’s parsha, “Yitro.”  That “The Ten” establish a framework, but that life is often not lived in the absolutes, but much more so within the grays.  We are commanded regarding the treatment...Read more...

Erev Rav – The Torah states that those who were a part of the Exodus from Egypt, were an erev rav, a “mixed multitude.”  The classical and more modern commentaries capitalize on this colorful notion, explaining that not all those who left Egypt could, “de facto or de jure”, be considered B’nai Yisrael, the Children of Israel (“descendants of our patriarch, Jacob).  Rather, our brilliant interpreters teach...Read more...

Chanukah starts tonight. For our people, the driving theme of Chanukah is lighting lights. The truth is, we are not the first people in the history of humankind to build a holiday around the lighting of lights at this darkest season of the year. For us, though, the power of the story is in the effort to banish darkness with the flames of learning, righteousness and expanding joy.  It is especially poignant this year, as we...Read more...

I recently received an email from a member of our community expressing deep concern over the tragedy of lives lost and upended by the Israeli incursion into Gaza.  In response to my blog that week, this person wrote simply this, “There is no justification for the murder of thousands of children.” It’s taken me a few weeks to respond.

Dear Friend,

I am really not sure exactly what I can say to you to respond in a...Read more...

Many of you have called and texted or stopped me to ask, “What do you think?” or “What is happening?” or “How can/should I understand this?” I believe that, in the most complicated and convoluted, and yet simple of ways, it is a matter of what Secretary of State Antony Blinken, stated at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem, in the past couple of hours:

Read more...