Psalm 51: High Holyday Liturgy
my bones /
my spirit /
my heart /
cry out for grace
Today We Are all Priests: A Communal Confession and Granting Forgiveness for Yom Kippur
Three Confessions I confess my own sins. I have made mistakes, I have chosen selfishly, I have hurt others, I have held grudges. I have done damage in the world. […]
I in the Sukkah
I in the SukkahLit. hut or booth A temporary hut constructed outdoors for use during SukkotLit. Booths or huts Sukkot is the autumn harvest Festival of Booths, is celebrated starting the 15th of the Jewish month of Tishrei. Jews build booths (sukkot), symbolic of the temporary shelters used by the ancient Israelites when they wandered in the desert. Traditionally, Jews eat and sleep in the sukkah for the duration of the holiday (seven days in Israel and eight outside of Israel). The lulav (palm frond), willow, myrtle, and etrog fruit are also waved together., the autumn harvest festival. Many Jews observe the mitzvahLit. Commandment. It is traditionally held that there are 613 mitzvot (plural) in Judaism, both postive commandments (mandating actions) and negative commandments (prohibiting actions). Mitzvah has also become colloquially assumed to mean the idea of a “good deed." of living in the Sukkah […]
Psalm 27: An Elul Redux
the stronghold /
is a brook /
that babbles inside our selves
Waiting at Sinai: Visualization for Rosh Hashanah
Can you imagine the multitudes, the incredible sea of us?
Reading for Elul
Even if you remembered to buy local, organic honey, there is no readiness for the work to come.
Rosh Hodesh Elul: A Shiviti Return and Renewal
A meditative chant for Elul and the Yamim Noraim. Best if played on repeat: Shuv, shuvi teshuvah Turn and return to who you are
Tisha B’Av to Rosh Hashanah: Seven Weeks
Reflection prompts for the seven weeks between Tisha B’AvThe holiday on which the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem is commemorated through fasting and prayers. and Rosh HashanahThe Jewish New Year, also considered the Day of Judgment. The period of the High Holidays is a time of introspection and atonement. The holiday is celebrated with the sounding of the shofar, lengthy prayers in synagogue, the eating of apples and honey, and round challah for a sweet and whole year. Tashlikh, casting bread on the water to symbolize the washing away of sins, also takes place on Rosh Hashana. using the sefirot(pl of sefirah) In Kabbalah, the 10 “attributes” – channels of Divine energy – via which God interacts with creation.
For These Things I Weep: A Lament Delivered at ICE Offices
These public remarks were delivered by Rabbi Tamara Cohen in front of ICE offices in Philadelphia on Tisha B’Av 5778 (July 22, 2018). They were reformatted into poetic form by […]
“Bitterly She Weeps In the Night”: Voices of Exiles and Refugees, Past and Present
Text sheet that takes a few lines of each chapter of Eikha and puts a parallel quote from an immigrant parent separated from their children.