(This Op Ed first appeared in the MetroWest Daily News on September 29th. 2024, it is available here) On Wednesday evening, the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah begins. For Jews around the world this marks the beginning of the new year. Normally we prepare for this holiday with a sense of excitement and joy. While Continue Reading »
(This article first appeared in the Fall/Rosh Hashanah issue of Shalom Magazine) When we approach the secular New Year alongside countdowns, parties, and the ball drop the major way that we mark the transition is through the making of resolutions. These can have varying levels of success, although they often do not prove to be Continue Reading »
Dear TST Family, As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week, our hearts are full of many emotions. We feel enormously grateful for our TST community and appreciative of the opportunity that Thanksgiving provides to pause and reflect. Yet, our hearts still ache with the heaviness of the past several weeks and the present moment. Continue Reading »
April 3rd I am handing over the blog today, to share my wife Micol’s reflections on our visit to Thereisenstadt. She says it beautifully: “My eyes and my heart are heavy. Yesterday we traveled to Terezin, known as its German name Teresienstadt by many. Terezin, a fortress city built in 1780 about 30 miles north Continue Reading »
Originally posted here: https://www.jewishboston.com/read/mitzvah-day-a-runaway-success-at-temple-shir-tikva-in-wayland/ On March 10, over 350 volunteers packed more than 33,000 meals for Meals of Hope as Mitzvah Day roared back to life for the first time since 2019. On a sun-splashed Sunday morning on March 10, Temple Shir Tikva partnered with Meals of Hope for its annual “Mitzvah Day” to pack 33,000 meals Continue Reading »
Ki Tisa The Golden Calf Sasha Tulgan Ki Tisa is a commentary about idol worship, faith and trust, community organizing, leadership, fracture, and repair. I want to focus in particular on fracture and repair, and the importance of strong leadership at a time of brokenness. A basic overview of Ki Tisa is as follows. Moses Continue Reading »
This past weekend we showed our children the movie the Wizard of Oz for the first time. We had been a little concerned about how they might react to a wicked witch and evil flying monkeys. But, we shouldn’t have been worried. First of all, they loved the movie; the songs, story, and performances definitely Continue Reading »
I’ve just returned from a quick 3-day Solidarity Mission in Israel with Rabbi Marc Baker (close friend and head of our Boston Jewish Federation, Combined Jewish Philanthropies), his amazing son Maor, and many wonderful friends who joined us along the way (being needed for Kaddish minions for Zev’s father was one of many special moments). Continue Reading »
When a swastika is drawn in our town, in our community, we have to decide how we are going to respond. And there really are two choices: you either ignore it, or you act. And when we think about and study the history of antisemitism and racism, we know how often people choose to ignore Continue Reading »
I honestly don’t know where to begin this evening. In trying to think about the right words to share, the right remarks, what we need to hear – I have struggled. I have struggled more than on any other occasion during my rabbinate. Like you, I woke up to the news yesterday morning and I Continue Reading »