Join us for a playdate and an interactive, kid focused service. Stay for kiddush afterwards!
Shabbat Shalom
Do you ever find that the books you’re reading—or are putting off reading—seem to be sending you a hidden message? ...
This week, the Jewish community begins reading the third book of the Torah, known in Hebrew as Vayikra, from the ...
These are remarkable times: traumatic, painful, isolating. But they are also remarkable for the self-sacrifice, ...
In our many years in Los Angeles, Beth and I confronted a dozen wildfires near our home. In the event of ...
At this time last year, I was sitting in the sanctuary at Rodef Shalom, listening to the Purim Megillah reading. ...
This week’s Torah portion, Terumah, features an elaborate description of how the Mikdash, the Holy Sanctuary, is ...
Dissonance and harmony. Elemental qualities that can enliven or calm the senses. I’m thinking about this because ...
Yesterday, I encountered a spirit from my past. Some of you may remember Abe Polonsky. A kind, gentle, and caring ...
We humans are, at our core, storytellers. Or at least story listeners. Our music, our television, our literature, ...
We humans are, at our core, storytellers. Or at least story listeners. Our music, our television, our literature, ...
Dear friends,First and foremost, I want to wish you a safe, healthy, and peaceful Shabbat. In light of heightened ...
A 1970s childhood: basements, backyards, entire neighborhoods in which to run free. Young parents and ...
Abraham Joshua Heschel famously wrote, “Technical civilization is man’s conquest of space… Yet to have more does ...
I have often wondered how much faith we should place in our dreams, by which I mean our actual dreams, the ones ...
It sometimes feels as if our Jewish holidays—with one exception—are either too early in the calendar or too late. ...
Twelve years of primary and secondary education. Four years of college. Six in graduate school. I’ve had a lot of ...
The seeds of my interest in Israel were planted early in my childhood, in the fertile ground of a slide show from ...
If your life is anything like mine, time has become elastic. The boundaries between work and home and rest and ...
In this week’s Torah reading, we learn of Sara’s death and of the details of her internment in a cave in the field ...
God said to Abram, “Go away from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house to the land which I ...
When I lived in Los Angeles in the ‘90s, I used to listen to a ...
Even now, it is still painful for me to relive the events of that day. I can count on one hand—five fingers too ...
An acquaintance of mine recently fell ill, and his condition deteriorated rapidly. I began to examine my feelings ...
Picture in your mind’s eye a metal spring. Now picture the steel coil horizontal and resting on its side, and then ...
Blessed are You our God, Creator of the universe, who opens [the eyes of the] blind. This daily prayer speaks ...
Since the pandemic has forced us indoors, I’ve watched a tree outside my window bud, bloom, shimmer green, and now ...
It was 6:53 am in Los Angeles. Beth was seven and a half months pregnant and, up until that moment, everything ...
A seed, soil, and water—the elements are so simple; what results, so miraculous. Science can explain how the ...
When I learned to drive, I discovered the existence of an invisible social contract that’s about as ironclad as ...
Torah study can be frustrating. At times, it feels like algebra used to feel: of what possible use will quadratic ...
Our Torah reading this week, parshat Re’eh, offers a juxtaposition. The portion begins, “See, I place before you ...
Picture for a moment the tip of a needle, its metal stalk ending in a precise spike. Now picture the microscopic, ...
While I have only a very faint recollection of her, my great-great-grandmother, Bubu Fox, was alive until I was ...
I look forward to summer travel all year long. During the rest of the year, our family might grab a short weekend ...
In this week’s Torah portion, Pinchas, Moses names Joshua as his successor to lead the Israelites. In the same ...
I’m sure, like me, you last read To Kill a Mockingbird decades ago and yet—if you’re at least as old as me—you ...
When I was growing up, my family would gather for Shabbat dinner at my grandparents’ apartment in Heather Gardens ...
While scrolling through Facebook the other day, I came across a post that read, “Doing a brother check-in, showing ...
Remember the t-shirts that said My parents went to NY, and all I got was lousy t-shirt? I had one, courtesy of my ...
The analogy of a marathon keeps coming up when writers and commentators speak of the COVID-19 pandemic. And I keep ...
Beth Joseph congregation was a wonderful community. I can remember sitting in the sanctuary, surrounded by my ...
When I was a kid, I loved playing with magnets in the sandbox. I’d use them to conduct search and rescue missions ...
One of the ironies of the Age of COVID is the power it seems to have to generate clichés while at the same time ...
Rabbi Ely E. Pilchik, in a sermon, describes three eyes. The first is our physical eye, with which we access and ...
I want to start by wishing you a Shabbat Shalom. While we begin each Friday evening by saying these words, I know ...