Hear Our Voice

On the Shabbat that precedes Purim each year, the maftir (the additional Torah reading) comes from verses in Deuteronomy which describe the attack on the Israelites by Amalek soon after the exodus from Egypt and sets in motion the “feedback loop” of Shabbat Zachor (the Shabbat of Remembrance): the Israelites escape from the brutality of Pharaoh, only to then face the murderous indignities of Amalek, whose namesake later figures...Read more...

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In the face of Queen Esther’s fearful reluctance to act at the behest of her Uncle Mordechai to break protocol and approach the King (even though she had not been summoned) to seek his help in saving her people, Mordechai retorted with these words:

כִּ֣י אִם־הַחֲרֵ֣שׁ תַּחֲרִ֘ישִׁי֮ בָּעֵ֣ת...Read more...

A couple of weeks ago, I received a “delicious” email.  A young Bat Mitzvah student named Violet, from Birmingham, whom I named some 12+ years ago, wrote me with the request to offer my thoughts on the meaning of Shabbat.  While watching Abraham sleep through his anesthesia-induced, post-surgery haze, I found a moment to respond to Violet’s question, which went something like this: 

Dear Rabbi...Read more...

For some of you, this will sound like “old hat.” And for some of you, this will sound like something you believe you know (or you knew) but haven’t paid so much attention to, and  perhaps you could use a primer.  But for not a small number of you who are reading this blog, I believe—based on experience and at least the sin of omission by our educational institutions—this is something to which you really need to...Read more...

The primary purpose of Jewish spiritual practice is the betterment of self and one’s interactions with the world. 

I’m not quoting anyone specifically, except maybe none less than Rabbi Hillel, who taught, “Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to others.  That is the whole Torah.  All the rest is commentary, go and learn it.”

And if it were easy…but since it’s...Read more...

If we are indeed God’s chosen people and if God is indeed in control of everything, then why do we have such a sordid history?

But if God is a presence, the force of creation, the common bond of all humanity that exists but without pre-ordination or even an authorial personality-- and we are thus the writers of the Torah--why then would we write and repeat our story the way we did and do?

Instead, why didn’t we just write and rally around a “Yay Jews!” narrative?  Why must we continue to toil in Genesis’ vineyards of rivalry, debasement and violence between our ancient kin?  Our patriarch abandons his lover and child to death in the desert; our matriarch abuses the trust of her husband and son; the namesakes of the many of our 12 Tribes sell their brother into slavery and lie to their father about his fictionalized demise-- these are the ones in whose names we pray the Avot v’Imahot? Read more...

This past Shabbat, November 5, 2021, felt like a watershed moment for CSK.  From March of 2020 until just recently, CSK, like much of the rest of our society, had more or less been on lockdown.  Yes, we had a few positive blips this past summer when we gathered (still with precautions); but of course that enthusiasm abated quite quickly, and most unfortunately, as the Delta variant was on the rise.  Even this...Read more...

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Vax the Jews?  OK.  That would be a great idea, if only we weren’t already the most pro-vaccine ethnic group in America to do so (85% of us!)  What’s that?  That wasn’t their point?  They weren’t really talking about that kind of vaccination?  

Some morons last week hung a banner in Austin over the MoPac Expressway very near the...Read more...

In the second century CE, our Rabbinic Sage, Rabbi Chanina, taught:  “Pray for the welfare of the government, for were it not for the fear it inspires, every [person] would swallow his neighbor alive.”[1]About 1400 years later, the English  philosopher Thomas Hobbes would similarly warn:  “Except they be restrained through fear of some coercive power, every [person] will dread and distrust each...Read more...

Houston didn’t need another reform synagogue.  While certainly there were exigent circumstances which led to its founding, the driving force which birthed CSK into existence was the desire and yearning to utilize Jewish tools for deep and personal expression of oneself and one’s community. Our commitment to not owning or occupying a single building wasn’t first and foremost a financial decision, it was a spiritual one that...Read more...