In her book The Path of Blessing*, Rabbi Marcia Prager describes the practice of blessing – things, people, moments – as work of the soul. “As we grow in the path of blessing, we open to a more expansive way of being.” I love the sound of that. To me it means being open and Read More
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Omer Offerings 5786 – Week 7: Malchut
Image credit: Minnesota Indivisible Alliance Holy wow. The past six weeks have flown by. It’s been an honor to curate this series of Omer offerings. If you missed any I hope you’ll go back and read them all. I feel blessed to be in community with those who shared their reflections with us and for Read More
Omer Offerings 5786 – Week 6: Yesod
Our writer this week is Debra Seltzer. I can think of few more qualified to speak about Yesod, the sephirah dedicated to strong foundations. Debra is one of our longest-standing members and served many years on our Board, including as its Chair. In that role and all other leadership she provides our community, Debra lends Read More
Omer Offerings 5786 – Week 5: Hod
This week’s post comes from another new voice in our community. Ian Ghidossi made his leadership debut in Sukkat Shalom at our Adult B’nei MItzvah in March. His offering here is at once deeply personal and universal. He draws a clear connection between last week’s sephirah, Netzach, and this week’s, Hod, helping us seeing how opening Read More
Omer Offerings 5786 – Week 4: Netzach
on the Cowboy Trail in northern Nebraska When it came to curating an author to write about Netzach, I immediately thought of Doug Calem. As many readers know, in 2021, at the age of 61 Doug completed a cross-country bicycle trek that required lots of Netzach – often translated as endurance. He wrote a, hopefully Read More
Omer Offerings 5786 – Week 3: Tiferet
I took the liberty of writing this week’s offering myself. Here it is, following a kavanna for counting. Blessed is the Infinite Mystery that flows through all the worlds and calls us into holy relationship through the counting of the Omer. – R’ Yael Levy The first time I counted the Omer I started the Read More
Omer Offerings 5786 – Week 2: Gevurah
This week’s offering comes to us from a relatively new, strong voice in our community. Aaron’s level of learning about Judaism is mind-bending. And his enthusiasm and capacity to share what he knows with others is truly a gift from the heart. That spirit flows through the writing below, carrying us seamlessly from Chesed, which Read More
Omer Offerings 5786 – Week 1: Chesed
Counting the Omer – the 49-day period between Passover and Shavuot – is a Jewish tradition that’s played out in different ways over time. For our ancient forebearers counted these days as part of an outward-facing agricultural pursuit; an omer was literally an offering of grain made in recognition that forces beyond us control the Read More
Celebrating Our First Adult B’nei Mitzvah
To quote Rabbi Jessica, “HOLY WOW!” The first adult b’nei mitzvah in the 20 year history of our community was truly awesome. Traditionally Jewish children become bar or bat mitzvah at the age of 12 or 13, marking their recognition in the community as adults, ready to perform the mitzvot (often translated in our wisdom Read More
Sukkat Shalom: Our Island of Sanity
When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order.” – Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize-winning chemist A few weeks ago I saw an article hanging on a community bulletin board titled: “Creating an Island of Sanity Read More