Category: September 2024

Yomim Noraim …or making it By: Rabbi Dovid Samuels “This act of disconnecting from our sole dependence on the physical and attaching to our spiritual source is the process through which we can achieve full repentance and forgiveness.” Men with white kittels, women without their finest jewellery, no festive meal…no meal at all! A day spent almost entirely in shul. Angels neither eat nor do they drink. We imagine them in pristine white garments. I suppose we are trying to show Hashem that we are like angels. Yom Kippurim does…

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Yomim Noraim Upgrading our dictionary for the new year By: Paula Levin “To change our actions from negative to positive, we only have to come back to who we really are!”   Many people believe that the judgement of Rosh Hashanah, sealed on Yom Kippur, is based on our deeds from the previous year. A sort of “naughty or nice” consequence for deeds already done. Does this sound Jewish? Well it’s not! Think you know what prayer, judgement, sin and many more terms from the High Holy Days mean? Think…

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Yomim Noraim feature Making worlds out of words By: Rabbi Moishe Schnerb “Each vidui purifies the sin, downgrading its severity continuously, until it becomes something so great that we are worthy of receiving reward for it in this world.” The shul is crowded, The lights are dim. All have gathered for the Yom Hadin. People stand and even pray, Tears keep flowing as they sway, And they say Their confessions Their commitment to be better, So much better. Mordechai Ben David so beautifully sets for us the scene of yet…

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Through Different Eyes Unsophisticated, yet powerful By: Rabbi Shishler  “The shofar stirs us to compose a terse, heartfelt message to our supernal father.” How do you send a distress signal? Native Americans used clouds of smoke and WWII soldiers Morse Code. Shaina uses WhatsApp. She always has a trick up her sleeve. A few weeks ago she proved that, despite her verbal limitations, she is a communications whizz. We are fortunate to take our granddaughter to school in the mornings with Shaina. They both insist we play the same kiddie…

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Strap: Confluence You can ’t hide By: Rabbi Dr David Fox “No rabbi. No Torah scholar. No sermon.” Pics: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uJVNLVCbWjmswQZ_ABjNHxivLbEUgn0Z/view?usp=drive_link I was the stranger in town. Having relocated in order to complete my clinical training at a noted hospital. I had left behind familiar faces, comfortable climate, and my position as a congregational rabbi in a small community. Moving to a major centre of religious Jewish life, I was unknown to literally everyone in the area and began to enjoy some of the anonymity, which allowed me to pursue my…

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Israel in Context Is it possible in the Middle East? By: Bev Goldman “Maintaining control over millions of Palestinians without granting them full rights undermines Israel’s democratic character and could lead to international isolation.” “Perhaps the October 7, 2023, catastrophe will lead to new thinking about peace plans. The Austrian Jewish philosopher Martin Buber considered a binational state in 1946. Palestinian and Israeli thinkers, among them Bashir Bashir, Leila Farsakh, and Avraham Burg, have recently picked up these ideas and considered alternatives to partition. What, they asked, if self-determination for…

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​ COOL IT! When expecting a larger crowd than normal, I like to place my bottled fruit juice, white wine and water into a silver champagne cooler surrounded by ice blocks, to keep them cool. Yes, those little blocks do melt quickly and when you forget to buy large packs from the bottle store and have to start collecting packets of homemade ice, it becomes a real pain! However, all this changed for me after watching a TikTok clip on how to make ice balls with balloons. It was so…

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