Hear Our Voice

At times, Abraham was blinded by ambition

and Sarah by jealousy,

Isaac by fear and Rebecca by agency,

Jacob and Esau, could often only see each other’s back,

Rachel and Leah got stuck in minds full of lack. 

Each of them, our...Read more...

Rabbi Scott is on vacation this week, relaxing after a busy spring and preparing mentally for the gauntlet that is the High Holy Days. As you might know, we need volunteers for this big event, so please consider how you might be able help out. There are many tasks to take care of, both before and during the High Holy Days. Our celebration is a great opportunity for Shma Koleinu to put our best foot forward throughout the...Read more...

The story goes that on one particularly fateful day, the elders were simply fed up by the ways in which their people disregarded their teachings, disavowed their presumed allegiance and were inert to their teachings for how one should live one’s life. And so the elders prayed. They prayed harder and stronger and louder and more fervently than ever before in their lives. And because all of them prayed together with such intensity...Read more...

Dear Fathers, Happy Father’s day friends!

I just returned from a lovely (but shvitzy) walk, while listening to a remarkable interview. Take these words from Joseph Campbell for starters:

“We have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known;...Read more...

Dear Reverend Colin Bossen, Reverend Dan King, and the community of the First Unitarian Universalist Church,

We, Shma Koleinu, are so very grateful to you and your willingness to open your doors to us. We don’t know you yet, but we look forward to it. As you have may have heard, we are a Jewish community without walls. Shma Koleinu is made possible by the generous support of our contributors, all of whom are, as we...Read more...

As many of you know, the Hausman-Weiss’ lived in Birmingham, AL for 12 years.  And most often, we connect nonetheless positively to this historically troubled place.  “Some of my best friends are from Alabama!”  But today, in the wake of that state house’s draconian anti-choice law just signed by the governor, its especially difficult.  I know that Alabama is not alone, that it is joined by other states that...Read more...

Perhaps we ought to rename this Sunday, May 12th

"Mothering Day"?

For there is so much more to being a mother

Than the act of giving birth

Now I know as a man, I offer these words with a little bit of fear

For to suggest that giving birth is but a blip, an act that only lasts a moment or a day, may most certainly fall on deaf (or angry) ears

This is not what I wish to say

But instead, it...Read more...

Welcome to Chol HaMoed Pesach, essentially meaning, the “Holy Normal.”  Whereas Shabbat and the chaggim (the first and last days of Pesach and Sukkot, and Shavuot) are considered the most holy days of the year, and most other days are considered chol (normal, everyday), the days in between the first and last of Pesach and Sukkot fall into this category of chol hamoed (the holy normal days of this season).  Why do they carry this...Read more...

“Arguing against intermarriage is like arguing against the weather,” said Egon Mayer, the founder of the Jewish Outreach Institute well over thirty years ago.  I’ll never forget the expert historical claim of my professor, Rabbi David Ellenson, who taught us that in every emancipated Jewish community throughout history, by the third generation, 1/3 of Jews married people from non-Jewish backgrounds.  And yet, despite...Read more...

“Eventually has arrived.”  These words a friend of mine recently shared with me in a catch-up phone call, describing a recent reunion with an old friend.  He explained, “I just had to take the time, the gift of time.”  For it is fleeting.   Youth is for those who believe in things they will eventually accomplish, when they have time, when things are in order, once we have finally grown up.  I hear lots of...Read more...