Our Temple Israel Story

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On June 14, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, our weekly reflection as we head into Shabbat. Last night we held our Annual Gathering. It is a thrilling moment of the year to celebrate and reflect. Below are the words I shared with those gathered. Martin Buber noted that with regard to Torah there are some words that lead the […]

Posted by tisrael
On June 13, 2019
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Charleston, SC. There we stood on sacred ground, surrounded by voices of those who were forced to come. They came on ships through the Middle Passage, shackled, yoked, stacked on shelves like items in a grocery store, stripped of their humanity—proud Africans made to bend under the whip of the slave trader; sold to white […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On June 7, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we move toward Shabbat. We live in borrowed time. Our lives are only lent to us by the universe, divine or otherwise. We may imagine we can live forever, but we know we actually cannot. That is why it is borrowed time. So, while we are here, […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On May 31, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection on our way toward Shabbat. The strategy of this week’s Torah portion is clear. Follow the way of Torah and all will go well. If not, failure, indignity, and loss await. The picture painted can either be bleak or beautiful, but not both. I joined members of our […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On May 24, 2019
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Women have been wronged. Children have been wronged as well. That means that everyone not in the above two categories have also been aggrieved. No one is left untouched in the destructive legislation concerning abortions—especially, of course, women’s bodies, which have been viewed as the property of government. This week’s Torah portion, Behar, has something […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On May 17, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we head toward Shabbat. When rules and laws apply to some and not to others, chaos ensues. Therefore the law should be equally applied in all circumstances. No exceptions. Today, and in ancient times. Our Torah portion this week offers the following instruction: You shall have one […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On May 10, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we move toward Shabbat. The Talmud (Shevuot 39a) insists: Kol yisrael arevim zeh bazeh, Which means all of Israel are responsible for each other. This formative piece of Jewish literature and law did not know from a country. It understood what responsibility each individual Jew has toward […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On May 3, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we move toward Shabbat. This last week has been frightening, terrifying even. From Poway, California to the New York Times to Yom Hashoah, our yearly remembrance of the Holocaust, rocked whatever hopeful high we may have had from the experience of Passover. The crumbs of matzah hadn’t […]

Posted by Guest Author
On May 2, 2019
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By Evan I. Schwartz Some entrepreneurs have to rise above greater obstacles than others. Nefisa Siraj owns Cini Coffee in Brighton, which imports coffee beans from her native Ethiopia, the land where the coffee plant originated and was discovered by a legendary goatherder in the ninth century. As a mother of four who arrived in […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On April 26, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we move toward Shabbat. When Does Passover End? Never. We may stop eating Matzah after the 7th day and start back with consuming bread and cookies. The real work of Passover, however, continues as a current through the year and our lives. If we isolate the experience […]

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Adult

Youth

Our Temple Israel Story

We Can Do Better

Borrowed

History & Responsibility

Wronged

Exempt

Destiny

Fear Turned Into Awe

That Cup of Coffee from Ethiopia Comes with a Story

When Does Passover End? Never.