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...
Driveway Moment
04/13/2023 12:12:42 PM
Whenever the Jews were threatened with disaster, the Baal Shem Tov would go to a certain place in the forest, light a fire, and say a special prayer. Always a miracle would occur, and the disaster would be averted.
In later times, when disaster threatened, the Maggid of Mezritch, his disciple, would go to the same place in the forest, and say, “Master of the universe, I do not know how to light the fire, but I can say the prayer.”...Read more...
Straight Out of Egypt
03/30/2023 08:30:18 AM
Why do I get stuck? Why am I mired in frustration, or regret, or the stories about me that I imagine other people believe? Why is it that after 53 years, with more than 20 as a Rabbi, more than 25 as a parent, and close to 30 as a husband, can I so easily get lost in self-doubt, critical of the whole of me, when I receive feedback that isn’t what I want to believe about myself? The ease with which I can tell myself stories...Read more...
Choice or Church?
03/22/2023 07:55:48 PM
The Book of Deuteronomy declares, “Justice, justice, shall you pursue.” Our Rabbis taught that “Justice” is repeated here because we are being commanded “to do justice, justly.” And there are those who teach that “Justice” is repeated because there is rarely only one means by which a circumstance in our world can be made fairer. This week, for the CSK blog, one of our CSK supporters and...Read more...
An Invitation
03/09/2023 09:08:06 AM
“A mid-day break”…”A connection to community”…”The music”…”The opportunity to offer a Mi Shebeirach prayer, and focus for just a few moments, in the midst of the busy-ness of the day, on my loved one, my friend, who is ill…in the hospital…struggling for comfort and ease”…”Without a fixed time to do so, my prayers for channeling gratitude can so easily go...Read more...
Wisdom Works
02/23/2023 05:52:11 AM
To listen to this blog, click HERE.
About 15 or so years ago, I heard a most challenging question about Jewish ritual:
Rabbi Irwin Kula, President Emeritus of CLAL (The Center for Learning and Leadership) who was just here in Houston teaching at Yom Limmud, asked a group of us at Emanuel in Birmingham, AL, “Does it work?”
For example...
Does affixing a mezuzah to the...Read more...
I Told You So
02/16/2023 05:49:04 PM
Parashat Mishpatim, this week’s Torah portion, follows on the heels of last week’s revelation of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments provide us with a “Cliff’s Notes” answer to the ultimate question: What does God want from us? The Prophet Micah responded even more succinctly when he taught that what God wants is for human beings “to do justice, to have mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Standing...Read more...
Crisis in Israel
02/02/2023 12:53:23 PM
To listen to this blog, click here.
“The North American Jewish community has steadfastly come to the aid of Israel at moments of crisis. Israel belongs, first of all, to its citizens, and they have the final word. But Israel also matters to the entire Jewish people. When an Israeli government strays beyond what your commitments to liberal democracy can abide, you have both the right...Read more...
So Pharaoh's Standing at the Gates of Hell...
01/19/2023 09:16:14 AM
Whatever happened to Pharoah? Because the Torah doesn’t articulate that the Pharaoh of the Exodus story doesn’t die, the Rabbis teach that indeed he doesn’t. “Where is he, then?” they ask. “Standing at the gates of Hell, greeting the despots, and asking them, ‘Why didn’t you learn from what happened to me?’”
There are lots of bad people in the world, or at least people in...Read more...
This American Jewish Life
12/29/2022 08:48:27 AM
The theme of a recent episode of the podcast, This American Life, focused on “the ghost in the machine.” The idea being that in every technology, one can discern the imprint of the human being that was its creator. They open with some first radio recordings from RCA, they then move to a claustrophobic! daughter’s stories of her father who was the inventor of the MRI!, and then they move to a piece about a father...Read more...
End of Year Appeal
12/22/2022 09:15:47 AM
CSK is an idea that YOU bring to life. Because we don’t have a building, you are the infrastructure. YOU are the ones who carry the memories. YOU are our walls that hold us up, and against which we sometimes lean, and under which we find comfort, and within which we discover ourselves.
Some of you are “Regulars” – you give us life from day to day and week to week, you are supported...Read more...
We See You Sandy Hook
12/14/2022 06:32:58 PM
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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...
Home | About | Donate | My Account
Rabbi: Scott Hausman-Weiss rabbishw@cskhouston.com
Shma Koleinu, PO Box 1808, Bellaire, Texas 77402-1808
Privacy Settings | Privacy Policy | Member Terms
©2025 All rights reserved. Find out more about ShulCloud