Rabbi Jim‘s Podcast

This week I am going to explore the most prominent non-Jew in our Torah portion, Ishmael and ask us to consider what he teaches us about ourselves.  I am doing this because Beth David is a part of InterFaithways Shabbat, a city-wide effort to deepen our relationships and understandings with interfaith families.  I will also end the sermon with a list of 10 things we need to keep in mind when welcoming interfaith families and the challenges synagogues need to overcome.

The name for an angel and a human messenger has never been clear in Hebrew texts.  This makes some wonder why the Torah and Jewish literature did not strive for a distinction, yet maybe there is a reason for this.  Perhaps the reason lends itself to why we need to hear God's word regardless of the source.

This Yom Kippur saw the end of a 104 history of a synagogue where I once served as the 'traveling rabbi.'  Beth-El of Lexington Mississippi closed its doors at the end of Neilah, the end of the Yom Kippur service this year.  While the community was small, it always sought to include everyone which is something our synagogue and our wider community struggles to do today.  L'dor V'Dor (generation to generation) is something we proclaim in Judaism, yet when we try to live it we find that we may need to think of our community in a different way.

Kashrut, or keeping kosher, is often something we don't think about in Reform Judaism.  Yet, perhaps we as Reform Jews need to be at the forefront of teaching what it means not just to eat by this word, but to live by it.  With the horrible conditions in Postville, IA and the lack of condemnation from those who follow the dietary laws of kashrut, it is a reminded that we need to follow the moral lessons of kashrut and what it means to live by them today.
UPDATE: Glad to see Richard Joel, President of Yeshiva University take a stand.  Click here for article.

Coming to terms with the reality of our lives is often difficult.  We want to believe in the fantasy of the fairytale ending, but more often than not, we find that fairytales end in disappointment.  Unataneh Tokef is often considered the most hated prayer in our liturgy, yet it is also the one that expresses the greatest truths about our lives.  We (my wife and I) live a year that seemed to mirror this prayer, yet we found ourselves able to return to life.  Returning to life, ... is this not the message of Rosh Hashannah?

So, if you have never heard of Chelm, you have missed out on laughter and on the stories that make us laugh at ourselves.  This past year we went through a rough year, yet I was touched by the response of my congregation to a request to help each other.  This year, we need to take these willing hearts and move to places where we can still make differences in the new year.

What happens when a leader sets a vision?  We can arrive at a new place.  What happens when broken maps and foolish concepts continue to contain the imagination?  This is a map that did.

Hi and welcome back!  I have been on vacation, but am getting back into the swing of things.  This week we will look at the message and meaning the tzitzit, or fringes that Jews often wear on a tallit and what the message of these sacred knots is for us as modern Jews.

When Moses and Aaron forget their place in Chukat, they also forsake any future they might have in the Promised Land.  How does this apply to our country?  When I look at our country I wonder if we too often forget our story, our purpose and thus squander our national purpose.  Perhaps we need new holiday, the 3rd of July as a day of study to remember and reassert the purpose of our great country.

I don't think I have ever asked for donations, but I think that on this week following the Fourth of July, it is appropriate.  Please find the link on the side column or here and make a donation to the fund for the family of slain guard Stephen Tyrone Johns.  Please join me in honoring the memory of another of Hitler's victims.