WORDS THAT BREATHE

Jazz was my sanctuary that night in Chicago. Michelle and I had slipped into the Jazz Showcase , where saxophonist Bobby Watson , the...

This week I said goodbye to my rabbi, my mentor, my friend. In that moment, I lost one of the great anchors of my life. Rabbi Stanley M....

In the beginning— before beginnings had breath— there was tohu vavohu, not just chaos, but collapse. Not just void, but the violence of...

מקור זיכרון ומשמעות Makor Zicharon u’Mashma’ot Source of Memory and Meaning, I turn to You with a heart heavy with love. My beloved—...

What does it take for a teenager to stand in a senator’s office, look a legislative aide in the eye, and say, “This is personal.” For the...

This week, I made a special trip to Gelson’s. Not for Shabbat flowers, not for wine, not even for the babka (though it took everything in...

How wonderful to gather together for a wonderful start of Jewish New Year 5784, abound with simchas and blessings, with hopes and dreams....

It was Yom Kippur, 1944, toward the end of the Nazi reign of terror. But the Jews imprisoned in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp, most...

Every other year in the days surrounding the High Holy Days, I find myself running to my chiropractor Joel Silbar , so that he can adjust...

Recently I witnessed one of the most heinous acts a Jew could imagine. With hatred and disgust in her eyes, a young Jewish woman looked...

Reflections When the Rabbi Feels Trauma  in CCAR’s Journal of Reform Judaism (Fall 2019)By Rabbi Paul Kipnes So That’s What Rabbis Do: A...

When the Rabbi Feels Trauma by Paul Kipnes, CCAR Journal of RJ, Fall 2019 By Paul Kipnes A mass shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue. A...

Part 1: BACKGROUND [After 11 deaths in 11 days, I had it out with God. I realized it was time for that conversation with the Creator, the...

Lech l’cha ! Get moving. Your future is ahead. Become your destiny. Get going. (“Leave us behind,” it seems, Remained unsaid.) Torah...

During this economic meltdown, will you join us as we  Pay it Forward ? We have been blessed with a whole web of workers, businesses, and...

Whenever we get stuck in the midst of a synagogue brainstorming session or change project, I trot out my cherished $50 Blockbuster gift...