Hear Our Voice

Waves of Concern, Circles of Care – How Do We Hold It All Together?

To listen to Rabbi Scott's blog, click HERE. 

A couple of months ago, Rabbi Laura and I began our annual conversation about the High Holy Days. (An occupational hazard for rabbis: planning the Days of Awe before the summer solstice!) Sadly, the theme we landed on has only grown more relevant. We feel the anxiety. We share your concerns. Wherever we turn...Read more...

Dear CSK,

I am in Israel. I am writing to you from Tel Aviv-Jaffa, from the Ruth Daniel Residence, which is a hotel/hostile owned and run by Beit Daniel, the largest Reform synagogue in Israel (more about Beit Daniel and its similarities to CSK – and our similarities to them – in the next blogpost). For this entry, I want to offer you the beginning of some answers. In my most recent blog, I let you know that I was on my way here...Read more...

One of the impossibly simple questions a meditation teacher asked us was to ponder upon an “Itch.” He asked us to consider what an itch is. Of course, sitting there focusing on breathing and sitting, while trying to focus on breathing and sitting with a running dialogue in our minds that says there is a “right” way to do both things that we had learned to do since we were in kindergarten, was seeming difficult enough. Now we had to...Read more...

Every year, I have the honor of giving the Invocation at our graduation ceremonies. And every year, I rise from my seat with a lump in my throat.

It’s not just because I’m speaking right after the graduates process in, though that alone is enough to stir emotion. They walk right past my seat—some of them making eye contact, others looking determinedly ahead. I steal glances at the goofy boys I’ve shushed a hundred times in...Read more...

To listen to Rabbi Scott's blog, click HERE.

I am not a, “I told you so!” kind of guy. I like to find balance and agreement, compromise and the maintenance and strengthening of dialogue. I believe that the best of the Jewish spirit and the human spirit is borne out by the words of Rabbi Hillel, “Eilu v’eilu divrei Elohim Chayim,” “These and these are the words of the living God.” However, in order for this to work, both...Read more...

Good afternoon! Today I had the incredible pleasure of attending the ADL’s Walter Kase Educator Excellence Award event at the Holocaust Museum Houston.  For details on the award and the three awardees, check out this great article from the Jewish Herald Voice.  But, I am dedicating today’s blog to one of those educators of excellence: Rabbi Laura Sheinkopf! 

As most of you know, Rabbi Laura is...Read more...

Today is Yom HaShoah, the day, chosen by the Jewish people, for remembering the Holocaust. Historically, there’s lots of debate about whether Israel became a state, because of the Holocaust. That in the shadow of the horror reported and documented for millions of people throughout the world, the world had a momentary lapse in its anti-Semitic muscle memory, and that this led to a breakdown in that which normally would have halted...Read more...

Did you know that the first observance of Passover took place before the Exodus from Egypt? Sounds strange, doesn’t it? But in the book of Exodus, Chapter 12, God commands that we observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread with meat from a slaughtered lamb, “roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs.” With apologies to vegetarians, this is the most real Passover there is. Simple and to the point, this is “OG”...Read more...

Sometimes I wonder how it is that we Jews have indeed survived (and thrived) as long as we have. Not despite the slings and arrows of history. And not despite the pitifully small percentage of the world’s population we represent. Not despite the fact that in every society in which we have lived, we often stick out by means of our theologies, rituals, and calendar, not to mention the way in which so much of our affirmations stand...Read more...

Purim is Thursday, March 13, but this past Sunday, Journey (our religious education program) celebrated Purim due to the upcoming Spring Break. With the story of Esther woven through the morning’s activities of team-based Purim projects, as well as a talent show performed by the students, we told, and retold, Esther’s tale, which can be summed up by that famously blunt, Jewishly sardonic, refrain appropriate for many Jewish...Read more...