Holidays and Holy Days
Rabbi Elliot Dorff makes an important distinction between holidays and holy days. Holidays are meant for fun, celebration, relaxation, travel. …
Author Archives: SRQ Jew
Teaching 6th Grade
This weekend I’ll begin teaching Hebrew school in a sixth grade classroom, Sunday mornings and Wednesday afternoons. I’ve been a …
Prayers of Gratitude
Thank you to all who reached out to check on me and my community as Hurricane Idelia bore down on …
Kindness
Many people are experiencing some of life’s most serious stressors this summer. This is always true; it’s just that this …
Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong
Today is the beginning of the Hebrew month called Elul, which marks just one month to Rosh Hashanah. Usually, I …
Judaism in Italy
Over the past two weeks I have visited synagogues in three Italian cities: Florence, Sienna, and Rome. I attended services …
What Does God Want?
“If…then” propositions tend to worry me. Something has to happen for something else to happen. It presupposes an outcome which …
We Rise — Above, Beyond
Today is Tisha B’Av, the saddest day of the Jewish year. Even sadder than Yom HaShoah, which commemorates the murders …
Israel’s Implosion
Tonight begins the saddest day of the Jewish year, the day we commemorate the two times that the Temple in …
Moses’ Words
In the turning of the Jewish year, each summer we come to the beginning of the Book of Words, D’varim, …
SRQ Jew 