Rabbi Nathan's blog

Friends, as we prepare to gather for Pesah, I would like to invite us to remember how the liberation we celebrate is not just from a snapshot in the past; rather, it is a continuous and ongoing process where we are seeking to become liberated from the patterns and behaviors that hold us back from becoming our fullest selves as we also address the many crises of enslavement and oppression that continue to plague the world around us. May we...Read more...

May the stories that we encounter this time of year that shaped our formation as a Jewish people ‐‐ our struggle and liberation from Egypt, our adoption of a code of laws, standards, and ethics ‐‐ continue to inspire us today to turn to our people and tradition for guidance and inspiration as we navigate the difficult and complex waters of contemporary life. May we also be inspired to take on the mantle of Jewish leadership and...Read more...

I imagine that some of you have read about the debate between the school of Hillel and the school of Shammai about the proper way to light the Hanukkah candles. In the Talmud the positions are laid out as follows: 

“The House of Shammai says: On the first day one kindles eight lights and, from there on, gradually decreases the number of lights until, on the last day of Hanukkah, they kindle one light. And The House of Hillel...Read more...

Friends, as you read this column we will be heading into the Jewish month of Tishrei and bringing in the new year. While Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur were holidays that were centered around Temple ritual in Biblical Israel, the holiday of Sukkoth was truly a holiday of celebration. As Rabbi Arthur Waskow notes in his description of the Second Temple Sukkoth celebration in Seasons of Our Joy, “in the days of the Second Temple, Sukkot was a...Read more...

In his spiritual preparation guide for the High Holidays entitled This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared, Rabbi Alan Lew z"l starts his reflections with the Jewish holiday of the 9th of Av, the moment that we mark the calamitous destruction of the Temple and our subsequent exile. (The holiday also encompasses later tragedies of exile and destruction as well.)

Rabbi Lew considers 9 Av, which falls exactly 7 weeks before Rosh...Read more...