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We See You Sandy Hook

12/14/2022 06:32:58 PM

Dec14

Rabbi Scott Hausman -Weiss

Yes, our Founding Fathers  saw fit to formulate the Constitution with forthright freedoms about firearms;

And it is oh so inconvenient to try to interpret their words for our day, when some insist you can only look at them through theirs–Except when it is convenient for them to look at them through ours.

Look, I’m all for the Constitution, just so we’re all clear,

But I’m also a Jew.

Read more...

Otherwise, What's the Point?

12/08/2022 10:25:20 AM

Dec8

Rabbi Scott Hausman -Weiss

I have always loved the story of the two painters who are hired by a king to then compete for the job of Chief Designer for a new castle. The King tells them both that they have to live in this one large ballroom for an entire year and that they will be provided all the materials that their hearts desire, in order to be able to complete a mural, one on one wall and one on the opposing wall, and at the end of the year, the King would...Read more...

As Broken as the Rest of Us

12/01/2022 09:38:07 AM

Dec1

Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss

No matter the age, the gender, the relative “professional success/failure” ratio of the person I am counseling, one of the most common existential crises that arise is this notion of “imposter syndrome.”  This is the feeling that we don’t deserve whatever job, recognition, or status we have achieved.  Professional coach Jen Robinson writes, 

“The common...Read more...

Reimagining 

08/11/2022 10:04:22 AM

Aug11

Rabbi Scott Hausman -Weiss

It’s probably unnecessary to once again recognize the uniqueness of this moment.  But indeed it has been a very, very long time since Jews, Jewish families, and those who love them, as well as our neighbors, colleagues, and fellow strangers have found ourselves sheltering in our homes for fear of the outside.  Some are terribly frightened of the risks to their health and those whom they love.  Others are caught in...Read more...

Faith in Faith 

07/28/2022 10:13:16 AM

Jul28

For most liberal Jews in America at least, we do not experience today or the days surrounding it as different.  Truth be told, for most Israeli Jews as well, the intermediate days between the 17th of Tammuz (the day of the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem in 70 CE) and the 9th of Av (the memorial of the subsequent destruction of the ancient Temple), are just Monday or Wednesday or… And I am not necessarily advocating for liberal...Read more...

Poisoned Wells

07/21/2022 09:28:46 AM

Jul21

Rabbi Scott Hausman -Weiss

To listen to Rabbi Scott read his blog, click HERE. 

About a month ago, three American Jewish families from a Conservative synagogue were celebrating their children’s B’nai Mitzvah in the Egalitarian section of the Western Wall when Haredi (Jewish fundamentalists) teenagers disrupted and defamed these families’ sacred moments. These families were holding their simchas (joyous events) NOT in the main part of the Western Wall...Read more...

Sinai and Philadelphia - do they still matter?

07/01/2022 07:27:08 AM

Jul1

Then Amos replied to Amaziah, "I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs.”  (Amos 7:14)

Well, I am not a legal scholar, nor am I the son of a legal scholar, but it appears that the left’s legal strategies have yielded a terrible harvest. I remember so very fondly the waning days of June, 2015 when I and a group of other Keshet volunteers were...Read more...

This is Why We Practice

06/24/2022 09:45:18 AM

Jun24

Rabbi Scott Hausman -Weiss

Life is difficult and these days it seems only to be more so.  My heart is broken by wanton violence. I can’t stop thinking about the children of Uvalde. Yes… Those who lost their lives, their futures, their hopes, and dreams… And also for the children who survived and will have to live with this permanent but invisible scar upon their hearts for the rest of their lives. I don’t demand that they live this way but it’s hard to...Read more...

The Rainbow and the Matrix

06/16/2022 07:14:13 PM

Jun16

To listen to this blog, click HERE.

I’m not sure why the story of Noah’s Ark has more often been understood as a children’s tale. How many of us remember, “Rise and shine and give God your glory glory! There’s gonna be a floody, floody…so Noah built an arky, arky of hickory barky, barky…and then the animals got on by twosies, twosies…until everything was hunky dory.” This is a lovely and fun song,...Read more...

Thou Shalt Not Turn the Other Cheek

05/26/2022 09:43:30 AM

May26

Rabbi Scott Hausman -Weiss

To Listen to this Blog article, click HERE. 

The tired adage carted out far too often is “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  I don’t think either is true.  Because what kills people are bullets.  Yesterday’s gunman in Uvalde, Texas had just turned 18; within days, not only had he come to possess two long guns, but 375 bullets, all acquired in one purchase! 

Read more...

To Israel with Love

05/18/2022 09:42:30 PM

May18

I will never forget my first trip to Israel - December 1992.  It started before I even arrived.  It was midday in Israel, the sun was bright, shining against the water, no clouds, and the Mediterranean ran by my eyes like trees from a car window. The Tel Aviv shore drew closer each minute, and as I watched the shoreline disappear beneath the plane, a homecoming overwhelmed me.  In that moment, I understood the words...Read more...

$614,250!

05/12/2022 07:00:20 AM

May12

I am thrilled to announce a gift to CSK of $614,250!  As you know, CSK normally does not offer public attributions in recognition of our supporters’ generosity. In this case, however, I hope you will agree that certain acts of generosity are just too significant to ignore.  $614,250 is just about 150% of our annual budget! $614,250!  Moreover, that isn’t even the top end of the yield of these donors’...Read more...

Do We Get It?

04/14/2022 10:10:51 AM

Apr14

In 1776, the Revolutionary War happened and yet there is still far too much taxation without representation. And ironically, for that matter, far too much representation without taxation.  The Civil Rights Act happened and yet for too long, too many have had to fight for the basic rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  WWII happened and the Holocaust happened and yet anti-Semitism, racism, and ethnic...Read more...

The Pharaohs and Hamans Keep Arising

04/07/2022 10:03:07 AM

Apr7

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...

If the Russians Love Their Children Too

03/24/2022 08:06:55 AM

Mar24

Rabbi Scott Hausman -Weiss

"Russians" by Sting (Click here for a You Tube Video of “Russians” by Sting)   In Europe and America there's a growing feeling of hysteria
Conditioned to respond to all the threats
In the rhetorical speeches of the Soviets
Mister Krushchev said, "We will bury you"
I don't subscribe to this point of view
It'd be such an ignorant thing to do
If the Russians love their children too
How can I save my...Read more...

What's a Nice Jewish Boy Like You Doing in a Place Like This?

03/10/2022 08:00:00 AM

Mar10

Rabbi Scott Hausman -Weiss

To Listen to this Blog, click here.

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...

This Is It 

03/03/2022 09:20:41 AM

Mar3

Rabbi Scott Hausman -Weiss

A friend of mine once related this story to me. He really loved his therapist and he talked about therapy all the time. How much he was learning and how much he really appreciated the recommendation he had been given to start going to therapy. He told me following his most recent session, that he was feeling so very grateful to the therapist for how she has helped him so much over the course of the preceding year when he thought to...Read more...

Dear Rabbi Scott

02/10/2022 08:45:00 AM

Feb10

Rabbi Scott Hausman -Weiss

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...

Learning to Wait

02/03/2022 09:00:00 AM

Feb3

Rabbi Scott Hausman Weiss

Experience has taught me that the toughest lessons to learn are the ones we teach with gusto.  I would like to believe that all my meditation practice, training, leading and teaching makes me “a pro” at sitting quietly… waiting for news.  But it doesn’t.  It just makes me a bit more aware of how I missed it again.  Sharon Salzberg teaches that “healing is in the return.”  How annoying is...Read more...

"Old" "Hat"

01/27/2022 10:20:11 AM

Jan27

Rabbi Scott Hausman-Weiss

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...

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784