Conundrum

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On August 23, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we approach Shabbat. I try to imagine the atmosphere around the big rectangular wooden table next to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office. I was there once, allowed in with other Reform rabbis to argue for progressive rights and recognition. The conversation was tense then, but civil. This time, it could […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On August 16, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, our weekly reflection as we make our way toward Shabbat. When you were younger did you learn that the Sh’ma is the “watchword of our faith?” Taken from this week’s Torah portion in Deuteronomy (6:4) and utilized in the liturgical context, it is a declaration and an instruction combined. But what […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On August 9, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, our weekly reflection as we make our way toward Shabbat. They thought God was dead. It was around 70 CE. The Roman forces had surrounded Jerusalem in preparation to conquer it. The Talmud (Gittin 56a) shared the details. What did Titus do when he conquered the Temple?…He took a sword and cut into the […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On August 2, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, our weekly reflection as we make our way toward Shabbat. Know where you came from, where you are going, and before whom you will give an accounting and reckoning. (Pirkei Avot 3:1) According to Pirkei Avot, the ethical teachings of the rabbis of the Mishnah, the road map to divert one […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On July 26, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, our weekly reflection as we make our way toward Shabbat. I left Israel late Wednesday night, but, one really never leaves that land. Its smells, sights, and sensations weave its way into the mind like images in a dream. Most days, early in the morning, when the air was still cool […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On July 19, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings. I write from Israel as we take this time for a weekly reflection as we move toward Shabbat. The King of Moab, Balak, was deeply disturbed. He convinced himself that the Israelites threatened his very existence since they encamped at his border. His own insecurity and self-induced dread caused him to descend into moral […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On July 12, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings! I am still in Israel studying at the Hartman Institute in the Rabbinic Leadership Initiative. I offer these thoughts as we make our way toward Shabbat. In 1953, the Israeli poet, Amir Gilboa, wrote “A Song in the Morning”. He captured the potential of the new nation of Israel. Suddenly a […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On July 5, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we make our way toward Shabbat. For the next three weeks, I will be writing from Jerusalem. I am in Part One of a divided Sabbatical over the next three summers as I participate in the Rabbinic Leadership Initiative at the Hartman Institute. I’m grateful to our synagogue […]

Terror at the Border

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On June 28, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, our weekly reflection as we make our way to Shabbat. This week marks the end of the third year of a total of 156 Shabbat Awakenings offered so far. Next Shabbat, we begin the fourth cycle anew. *** They had traveled for 40 days, traversing the land of great promise, as […]

Posted by Elaine Zecher
On June 21, 2019
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Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we make our way toward Shabbat. Just like that, spring turned into summer today, a miraculous, religious, spiritual moment in the circle of the year. In its honor, I offer this poem by Walt Whitman for whom we celebrated his bicentenary on May 31st. Miracles Why, who […]

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Adult

Youth

Conundrum

Watchword

Words and Death

Reckoning

On My Way Home

Disturbed

Never Ending State of Mind

I Am In Israel

Terror at the Border

The Miracle of Spring into Summer