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     L’Shana Tovah once again!  Tonight, the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanan and Yom Kippur, is known as Shabbat Shuvah – a Shabbat that reminds us, among other things, that this High Holiday season is just that: a season.  The inner work and contemplation does not end with Rosh Hashanah or even with Yom Kippur.  It all goes on. 

     Since its inception, our tradition has also taken up questions as to just what returning means.  If our formative stories were about people who felt at home, who settled and stayed, we would probably all still be enjoying life in the Garden of Eden.  Instead, Adam and Eve’s earliest descendants traveled through deserts, traversed mountain ranges, crossed rivers… all to live here not there, be buried there not here, find a mate for their child by this well, not that one.  Judaism is no more defined by Edenic perfection than it is by being peacefully entrenched anywhere for all our days.  Oh, to live out our days, care for our families, be buried in our birthplaces or in the places we never imagined.  That is the restlessness we’ve inherited, for better and worse!Read more...

Dear Friends,

L’Shana Tovah!  It is with joyful anticipation, and more than a little bit of disbelief, that we at Temple Beth David look forward to welcoming all of you to High Holiday services, beginning with Erev Rosh Hashanah on Friday September 15.   Our congregation is on a path of gladness and growth, a year of taking those first steps together into our future while honoring the richness of our past.  May...Read more...

Our Torah portion this week, “Ki Tetze,” connects to its own Haftarah reading, as all portions do. Sometimes the link between the two is subtle; one line from the Torah portion is enough to guide the accompanying Haftarah reading into place beside it. Other times the Haftarah reading has many parallels to its Torah portion. Ki Tetze’s...Read more...

There’s a great old bumper sticker I used to see around, which I especially appreciated at this time of year.  “Labor Day,” it read.  “From the folks who brought you the movement.”  For those who don’t know, many of “the folks” who brought us the movement in this country – innovations like the 40-hour work week, safer conditions in factories, and broadly speaking, a campaign in working...Read more...

Perhaps the hardest lesson for any child to learn is that parental decisions are sometimes final, whether or not one agrees with their parent’s logic. With infuriating consistency, no means no, no matter how much a child may plead, pucker out a lower lip, or employ the most adorable, irresistible pair of puppy dog eyes. Asking again five minutes later is unlikely to result in a different answer. Pushing back and arguing might even get one...Read more...