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Promising start to the New Year
We’ve come through the 10-day High Holiday period, kicked off by Rosh HaShanah, and closing with Yom Kippur, and we are now heading into the less known, but deeply meaningful Festival of Sukkot, ending with Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah in a week. I decided to spend the holidays at Beth Am, the congregation that…
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Selichot – Prayers of forgiveness
I just returned home from a beautiful and music-filled Selichot service, where I joined my voice with my fellow Zemer Chai chorus members, and several cantors and rabbis, in leading a service of preparation for the High Holidays that are upcoming in just a little over a week. On my way home, I opened up…
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Counting the Omer – continued
[continued from Counting the Omer]…I was asked to get involved because I have led meditation sessions at Tikvat Israel for several years, and our rabbi and lead organizer wanted to have a meditation and/or yoga element in the programming. We opted to devote the preliminary prayers for a Shabbat morning service last week, May 7,…
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Next Year in Jerusalem…Last Year in Sierra Leone
We close the Seder with the words “Next year in Jerusalem” (you can read an excellent article about the meaning of these words in the Passover liturgy here). And every year that I recite or sing these words, I think about how cool it would be to spend Passover in Israel, and specifically in Jerusalem. …
