Thanksgiving for Privilege
11/23/2023 02:20:24 PM
I don’t know where he first heard it or learned it or maybe he made it up himself, but my dad’s favorite toast at most any occasion is this: “May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live.” At some point along the way, my sister Sara (Cantor Sara) painted a beautiful sign with these words and now it adorns my parents' kitchen.
Questions
11/16/2023 01:57:41 PM
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...
Defense
11/16/2023 11:09:46 AM
There is a there is an old Hebrew folk song that goes like this:
Hayamim cholfim shanah overet
Aval hamanginah l’olam nisheret.
The days pass and the years change
But the melody forever remains
Esther 8:3-6
Esther spoke to the King again, falling at his feet and weeping, and beseeching him...Read more...
Its in the Bones
10/12/2023 10:47:16 AM
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...
Torah from Sinai
10/05/2023 09:52:26 AM
Years ago, a rabbi friend of mine, stepped even farther outside the box than me. He founded an organization called, “Religion Outside the Box,” and his most recent article was focused on spending Yom Kippur in a tent in his backyard, channeling the vibrations of the natural world and centering upon his place within it all. (Clearly, he didn’t do this in Houston!) But he also specifically focused his article...Read more...
Thank You!
09/28/2023 08:31:44 AM
For all of our technological advances, our lack of control over the weather can feel as daunting as it was for the ancient Israelites. Rain was the lynchpin of life in ancient Israel, and this extended period of heat and lack of rain here in Houston, should remind us of its import to our lives, our health, and to the functioning of our city. Maybe a rain dance is called for?
Back in the day (the ancient day, that is), the...Read more...
Worthy
09/07/2023 04:40:22 PM
I am anxious. I am feeling a bit raw.
In September 2020, we reinvented the High Holy Days and as difficult as that was, it was a time filled with incredible energy and ironically, possibility.
In September 2021, it felt, as they say in yiddish, nisht ahin un nisht aher, “Neither here nor there.” Masked, not masked, in-person, on-line, COVID emergency’s...Read more...
CSK's Book of Life Speakers 2023
08/31/2023 01:57:17 PM
When the Rabbis of the Talmud would argue over a point revolving around life and living, there was always a great variety of opinions on the “shoulds” of life. That variety of opinions was actually the point. But after rounds and rounds of discussion, if you really...Read more...
Investment
08/24/2023 09:12:46 AM
Dear CSK friends,
From the very beginning, CSK engaged in a value proposition. We believed and still do that
dues establish an expectation of payment, while voluntary contributions invite investment. For
10 years, we have been offering meaningful, engaging, and inspiring Jewish programming to all
Jews, Jewish families, and those who love them. And we do so, unironically, as an act of faith.
We hope and, dare we say, we...Read more...
The Elul Project
08/17/2023 09:32:00 AM
Elul is a time for self-reflection.
Have you been thinking that maybe you need to do some work on yourself?
Do you have a trustworthy loved one who has offered this suggestion?
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are around the corner with a special delivery – Your very own Cheshbon Hanefesh, The Accounting of Your Soul. This Jewish wisdom tradition imagines each of us receiving the record of our...Read more...
Failure is our Friend
08/10/2023 09:35:25 AM
Failure is our friend.
If we haven’t fallen, how do we learn how to get up? And how do we discover how to offer a hand to another who has fallen?
If we haven’t fessed up to breaking our word, how do we learn to receive the effort when made in our direction?
If we haven’t strived for something beyond our reach, achieved even some measure of our goal, and learned to live with imperfection, how do we...Read more...
Prell Shampoo
08/03/2023 08:46:51 AM
Why do we cook? Why do we go to the trouble of envisioning the meal, finding the recipes,
standing over hot ovens, stoves, and barbecues, to then plate and serve the meal, that often
lasts us but a half hour, if that? For that matter, why do we mend a fence when it inevitably
will break, oil a hinge when we know it will rust, paint a wall, fix a chair, or obsess over just the
right spirit for just the right...Read more...
"Respect the Weather!"
07/20/2023 06:10:33 PM
I was probably 8 years old and my mom, dad, sister, and I were in Colorado Springs visiting one of my Dad’s old friends, Jerry. It was winter and Jerry and my Dad were very excited to bring my sister, Alli, and me, out to a snow field across the busy street, where we would go sledding. My mom was immediately skeptical of the idea. I don’t know if it was because of the sledding, the snow, or just a general concern because...Read more...
How Do I Connect with My CSK Peeps
06/29/2023 01:01:52 PM
Every Friday evening since CSK embarked on our journey, now 9 ½ years ago, we invite those present for Shabbat to share their simchahs, as I translate, their good newses. Out of a desire to continually seek to build community through knowing each other, through what we share, we offer these moments for singing “Happy Birthday!,” for offering a special Shehechyanu (blessing of arrival of a precious moment), for hearing about the...Read more...
There's A Bigger World
06/22/2023 02:54:03 PM
To listen to Rabbi Scott's blog, please click HERE.
If your email inbox is anything like mine, and I’m sure it is, you are not thirsty for more solicitations from non-profits (not to mention a slew of the rest of the world, enticing you to spend more as well! ☺
But I have indeed learned that the fundraising aphorism is true, people don’t give to organizations nearly as much as...Read more...
A Day of Great Important
06/15/2023 11:24:14 AM
To listen to Rabbi Scott's blog, please click HERE.
Up until probably 10 years ago, June 19th held great meaning for Natalie and me (and our families) as it is our wedding anniversary. But probably about the time, or soon after, when we moved to Texas, June 19th came to be more than the day Natalie and I celebrate our union (29 this year!).
Perhaps of equal importance to the world (or…I guess...Read more...
Like the Fox Watching the Hen House
06/08/2023 08:35:15 AM
To Listen to the Blog, click HERE.
Sometimes a good idiom is the best we can do.
In French, they say, “Its like a fence eating the crop.”
Often, we hear people say, “Its like cutting off your nose to spite your face,” or
“Throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” or
“Burning down the barn to kill the rats.” “Its like a goat left to guard the cabbage patch.” Read more...
Hereinafter
05/25/2023 09:38:28 AM
Tonight and tomorrow is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. (CSK will be commemorating Shavuot tomorrow evening in a special Zoom Shabbat Text study on the 10 Commandments with Mi Shebeirach and Kaddish, please join us.) For Shavuot primer, I encourage you to click here.
Shavuot is a holiday that falls 50 days since the first day of Passover and it is meant to help us each envision a personal...Read more...
I Declare!
04/27/2023 11:28:21 AM
I didn’t get “in trouble” a lot as a kid. My parents might tell you that it wasn’t, however, uncommon for me to receive pretty good grades that were often accompanied by comments like, “Scotty likes to talk,” or “Scotty isn’t always on task.” Anyone who knows me today is probably not “aghast” at this characterization. I think perhaps the most memorable time I got “in trouble” in school...Read more...
What's at Stake?
04/20/2023 11:57:17 AM
When it comes to the Rothko, I’ve noticed there are two kinds of CSK-ers: those who absolutely love the Rothko Chapel and those who don’t…yet.
From those who have expressed resistance to the chapel, I have heard that it feels cold. Some have told me that the art feels expressionless and confounding. And for others, who know a bit about Mark Rothko and hold some general knowledge about mid-20th...Read more...
