by Rabbi Elie Mischel | f 12, 2023 | Amos, Elul, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur
The following scenario is probably familiar to many of us: Summer was great, but with a couple of weeks between the end of camp and the first day of school, we find our kids becoming restless and ready to return to routine. They miss the structured days and the...
by Mindy Rubenstein | f 17, 2023 | Elul, Repentance
My great-grandparents, Moshe and Kayla (Morris and Katy) Tanenbaum, for whom I am named, came from religious families in Ukraine and tried to preserve their Jewish life even in the U.S. Katy’s father, Fishel Rubin, was a rabbi and sent his daughter far away from the...
by Mindy Rubenstein | f 17, 2023 | Elul, Repentance
On the Jewish calendar, the Hebrew month of Elul begins tonight. This will be my second month of Elul in Israel. My family and I made Aliyah last September, two weeks before the High Holiday season. I was so excited and overwhelmed by the newness of our...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 1, 2023 | Antisemitism, Bo, Elul, Nisan, Shevat, Tishrei
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz While the entire world is celebrating, bringing in the new year, Jews are more subdued. Everyone else is flipping their calendars from 2022 to 2023, but the Hebrew calendar is already a quarter of the way through 5783. Why do the Jews have a...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 3, 2022 | Elul, Faith, Holiness, Prayer, Psalms, Purity, Repentance, Rosh Hashana, Tests and Trials
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz I had the remarkable merit of learning in Yeshiva (school for Torah study) with Barya Shachter, now a truly inspirational leader of a spiritual community. He is the son of Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi, the dynamic founder of the Jewish...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 9, 2022 | Elul, God, Marriage and Relationships, Mourning, Repentance, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Dani is a member of our small synagogue and every Shabbat, when we gather together after morning prayers, he jumps up and gives a speech on the weekly Torah portion. It isn’t nice to say, but his speeches drive me crazy. It always seems like...
