How do you measure the merit of a life? This week’s Parsha, Chayei Sarah--meaning “the Life of Sarah”-- focuses entirely on events happening after Sarah’s death. Sarah’s presence in this Parsha is experienced only through her absence from it. One of many illuminating paradoxe…
Human Connection and the Importance of Common Decency
When I was a kid growing up, I pretty much knew all the kids on my block, my parents knew their parents. There were block parties. We’d spend the fourth of July having picnics and lighting sparklers. Kids from the neighborhood spent their time running from house to house and playing with w…
“To everything there is a season, a time for every experience under heaven.
A time to be born and a time for dying.
A time for planting and a time for uprooting the planted.
A time for tearing down and a time for building up.
A time for weeping and a time for laughing.
A time for wailing a…
“All vows – all promises and pledges – that we have made to ourselves.
And that no longer serve – for the good.
May their grip be loosened.
That we be present of mind and heart – to the urgency of the hour.”
– Creative Interpretation of Kol Nidre by Poet Marcia Falk
The fi…
