

Bereishit: In God's Image
A couple of years ago, for the High HolyDays, Or Shalom Synagogue’s Rabbi Hannah Dresner decided that her overall theme would be humility. So she distributed these little wooden coins which she enjoined us to keep in our virtual pockets. I still have mine. The story is that Rabbi Simcha Bunim of P’shiskha taught that everyone should have two pockets, each containing a slip of paper. On one should be written: I am but dust and ashes/אָנֹכִי עָפָר וָאֵפֶר, and on the other:


Malchuyot or Why I Perform Interfaith Lifecycle Events: A Torah Vort for Rosh Hashanah 5780
In her “Crash Talk”, Rabbi Benay Lappe, the groundbreaking talmud teacher Or Shalom brought to study with us a year and a half ago, teaches that the Judaism of 100 years from now will be unrecognizable to us. Judaism is a living tradition that continually evolves and changes in response to time and place. We are co-creators in that process. I can’t identify the exact moment I decided to devote my rabbinate to performing interfaith lifecycle events. The amount of learning a