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.
Creating Worship Experiences at Temple Beth El by Rabbi Asher Knight
Rabbi Asher Knight
03/22/2018
As a rabbi, I believe that the communal prayer experience begins with the individual, and the potential for individual spiritual growth and transformation within community. ...
Read More →
Elements of Judaism: Walking Jewishly Through Life by Cantor Mary Rebecca Thomas (From Charlotte Jewish News Editorial, March 2018)
Cantor Mary Thomas
03/01/2018
Being a Jewish clergy person is a pretty fantastic job. On almost any given day, I will encounter lots of different people, each experiencing a ...
Read More →
Bashert – Being Right Where You Belong by Cantor Mary Rebecca Thomas
Cantor Mary Thomas
02/27/2018
Sometimes one finds themselves in exactly the right place at the right time. Jewish custom might designate circumstances like these as bashert – meant to ...
Read More →
Queen for a Day! by Susan Jacobs, Director of Education
Susan Jacobs
02/22/2018
When I was a little girl, my parents went to a Purim ball at Temple Israel and came home with the most beautifully decorated crowns ...
Read More →
The Power of Our Congregation by Judy Seldin-Cohen
Temple Beth El
02/16/2018
Lessons from TBE’s Action on Affordable Housing That Can Inspire Us Today In April 2010, the Temple Beth El Board passed a resolution on affordable ...
Read More →
PERSPECTIVE: reflections on turning 65 by Cantor Andrew Bernard
Cantor Bernard
02/14/2018
Many a day as I’m stretching on the pool deck getting ready for my swim, I tell one of my lifeguard friends, “Don’t get old. ...
Read More →
The Fault in our Bubbles by Rabbi Dusty Klass (From Charlotte Jewish News Editorial, February 2018)
Rabbi Dusty Klass
02/08/2018
For me, Christmas has never been about Chinese and a movie – it has been about family and food, watching It’s a Wonderful Life, and ...
Read More →
Purim – Tradition, Innovation, Experimentation by Andy Harkavy, Director of Congregational Engagement
Madeline White
02/01/2018
Judaism is all about tradition. We do what we do because our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on and so forth did it at one ...
Read More →
Adult Education at Temple Beth El by Rabbi Asher Knight
Rabbi Asher Knight
01/30/2018
At Temple Beth El, our Jewish learning helps to create sacred connections inspired by Jewish wisdom. Temple Beth El has been proud of our strong ...
Read More →
Cultivating A Prayer and Meditation Practice by Rabbi Asher Knight
Rabbi Asher Knight
01/25/2018
Prayer means something different to each of us. And in each stage and moment in our lives, we may need prayer differently. Recently, our high ...
Read More →
It’s a Learning Process by Dr. Laura Bernstein, Executive Director
Temple Beth El
01/18/2018
Plagues. Plagues. And more plagues. This week’s Torah portion, Bo (Exodus 10:1 – 13:16) begins with Moses and the eighth plague of locusts. It continues ...
Read More →
Purim at Temple Beth El by Cantor Mary R. Thomas
Cantor Mary Thomas
01/11/2018
The Book of Esther – Megillat Esteir – was likely one of the last to enter the cannon of the Hebrew Bible, as late as ...
Read More →
Social Justice and Action at Temple Beth El by Jill Blumenthal (From Charlotte Jewish News Editorial, January 2018)
Temple Beth El
01/03/2018
Recently, I invited a friend to join me at a Shabbat service. He declined my invitation, explaining that at the last service he’d attended, the ...
Read More →
The Jewish Community Refugee Initiative (JCRI) Needs You! by Amy Lefkof
Temple Beth El
12/28/2017
How many Jewish families does it take to resettle a Kurdish refugee family from Kirkuk? TBE families have been helping the Omar household, which consists ...
Read More →
Speech, Silence, and #TBERace&Justice: Why We Need You in a TBE Listening Circle by Rabbi Dusty Klass
Rabbi Dusty Klass
12/28/2017
I first discovered the Jewish call for silence at age seventeen. It had been chosen as the ‘wisdom quote of the day’ at camp: “Rabbi ...
Read More →
