The TBE Blog is the space where Temple Beth El’s Leadership Team members reflect on relevant topics that are most meaningful to us. Here you will find musings on everything from prayer to politics, music to mysticism and history to current day life. From our iPads, smartphones, and laptops to yours, these are the things that inspire us, keep us up at night, and fuel our own Jewish journeys.
Repro Rights Shabbat: Turning to Jewish Tradition in a Complicated Moment
At a time when access to reproductive health care is increasingly uncertain across our country, many Jewish communities are turning to something steady and enduring ...
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Standing Together as a Jewish Community
Dear Temple Beth El Community, We write to express our sympathy and solidarity with Beth Israel Congregation, a synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, which was targeted ...
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Holding Sydney in Our Hearts
Dear Temple Beth El Family, As we prepare to light the first candle of Chanukah this evening, our hearts are in Sydney, following the horrific ...
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Honoring Difference, Upholding Values: A Message from Temple Beth El Leadership
Temple Beth El has always been a place where people come together to learn, pray, and build Jewish lives of purpose. We are a community ...
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Supporting Our Community During This Week’s Immigration Raids
Dear Temple Beth El, Over the past several days, Federal Border Patrol agents have carried out an intensified enforcement operation across our city. Videos of ...
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When Music Becomes Prayer: A Weekend with Elana Arian and Iván Barenboim
By Cantor Danielle Rodnizki There are moments when music does more than simply fill the air. It stirs the soul, opens the heart, and connects ...
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L’Chaim to An Unforgettable Evening
This past Saturday night, nearly 350 members of our community filled the Carolina Theatre for an evening that brought together everything we love about Temple ...
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Forgiveness Does Not Come Easy
https://youtu.be/62gGeR5Vzek It’s so great to be in this sanctuary that I love, with this community that I love. Thank you Rabbi Knight, Cantor Rodnizki, Rabbi ...
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Finding Life on the Narrow Bridge
https://youtu.be/OR4s67vg8GM Yom Kippur is a reminder that life is precious. In truth, Yom Kippur is sometimes referred to as a rehearsal for our death. We ...
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The Courage to Bless
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSBy-fC1BcI In a commencement address, the author George Saunders shared a story from his youth.1 When he was in the seventh grade, there was a ...
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Can We Still Belong to One Another?: The Table that Holds Us Together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxbjAxo3cfk Partial Truths and Layered Perspectives It’s a human thing to want to know the whole truth. But most of the time, we only glimpse ...
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From Isolation to Invitation: Weaving a Stronger Social Fabric
https://youtu.be/AhZIvZgDwFM Last spring, Nicole Sidman, our Director of Congregational Life, and I arrived at an interfaith reproductive rights conference eager to learn, to connect, and ...
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A Thread and a Pool: The Spiritual Work of the High Holy Days
The gates of the New Year open like dawn, not with triumphant clarity, but with the pale light of questions we’ve been carrying all year ...
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Listening for the Sacred
Written by Cantor Danielle Rodnizki Each year, as the Hebrew month of Elul arrives, I find myself listening. Listening for the quiet stirrings of my ...
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Welcoming People to Jewish Life
Historically, Judaism has not been a proselytizing faith. In fact, many Jews associate proselytizing with efforts directed at them—often in ways that feel aggressive or ...
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