Day 19 of the Omer – Awe leads to balance
Hod in Tiferet – the grace of smallness in balanced beauty. Humility and grace remind us of the importance of every detail in anything balanced. A beautiful image may be as much about composition, the broad strokes, as it is about every pixel being smoothed to perfection – small details make a big difference. In […]
Day 6 of the Omer – the firm footing for giving
Yesod in Chesed – the bridge, or lens, or foundation, in compassion. Yesod is where we start, a firm footing for our first step into exploring deeper meaning in our lives. It is the bridge to broad horizons from which we can see destinations and ideals. In attempting to achieve kindness we must have a […]
Day 5 of the Omer – Compassion requires sympathy
Hod in Chesed – grace, the sense of our smallness, in compassion. When we see ourselves as small, we connect sympathetically with every one, even every thing. Sympathy can be a source for compassion, and can be essential for kindness in a helpful way. When we offer help, we often want to contribute in our […]
Temple Beth El’s Passover Seder Supplement – 5773/2013
Chag Sameach! Happy Passover everyone! Check out TBE’s Seder Supplement – feel free to use any or all of it for your own Passover Seder! Reflections and insight on today’s issues as they apply to our celebration of Freedom by Rabbi Judy Schindler, Cantor Mary Thomas, and Rabbi Jonathan Freirich. Download the file from here: […]
Soul Prints – Rabbi Judy Returns from Interfaith Journey to Israel
It is great to be home after a most inspiring journey to Israel with our decades long partner in dialogue Myers Park Baptist Church. I missed my husband and kids. Here is the poem I wrote this morning called “Soul Prints (Interfaith Journey 2013)” Toward the altar of old, Jews travelled from the farthest places […]
Temple Beth El Welcomes People Seeking Judaism
At Temple Beth El we welcome people exploring Judaism as an option, and Rabbi Judith Schindler carries on in her father’s teachings about doing so – check out an article that mentions Rabbi Alexander Schindler on the topic here: Opening the Gates of Judaism
Causing God to Dwell in Our Midst
This week, in parashat T’rumah, Exodus25:1-27:19, the Torah details the commands for the building of the Mishkan, the Tabernace, or portable Temple. We can understand about the need to bring God into our presence, even today, when we imagine God to be beyond the ideas of a tent or an ark of the covenant that […]
After Newtown…
A sermon from Friday, December 21, 2012 Genesis 46:28 Now Judah, he had sent on ahead of him, to Joseph, to give directions ahead of him to Goshen. When they came to the region of Goshen, 29 Joseph had his chariot harnessed and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen. When he caught […]
A Jewish Take on a Superstorm
The world is not fair – while Abraham seems to argue for fairness in the treatment of Sodom and Gemorrah, still Lot needs to flee the disaster with his family. Bad things happen. Storms happen, and people run from storms, stay hunkered down in storms. What separates the fortunate on the Upper West Side of […]
