WORDS THAT BREATHE

A tribute to my rabbi, mentor, and friend, Stanley M. Davids, who died recently.

A jazz club. A Torah whisper. A T-shirt with a prophet’s promise. Reflections from the CCAR rabbinic convention on listening for the sacred in unexpected places—and improvising our way toward hope.

A spoken word poem about facing the reality before our world

Love lives in the details—the small, intentional acts that show we care. Vayakhel teaches us that just as the Israelites built the Mishkan with devotion, we create holiness in our own lives through everyday gestures, like getting the right mustard and mayonnaise for my wife—because love, like faith, is best expressed in the language the other understands.

A heartfelt prayer for those caring for a loved one with dementia or Alzheimer’s, offering words of compassion, strength, and hope. It asks for patience in the face of loss, love that endures beyond memory, and the grace to cherish what remains.

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 remarkable teens of Congregation Or Ami (Calabasas, California), it took courage, conviction, and a deep belief in the power of their own voices. This past week, a group of our young leaders traveled to Washington, D.C., for the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism ’s L’Taken Social Justice Seminar . Over four days, they immersed the

If Kol Nidre is really an Aramaic legal formula, why do we keep singing it?

How to find hope when the world feels hopeless.

How my chiropractor prepared me for Rosh Hashana.

How to respond when life out there is so full of stress that we often want to pull back, circle the wagons, and just take care of ourselves.

In an act so heinous to Jews, an orthodox Jewish young woman spit on the Torah scroll. That's what the ultra-orthodox leadership is fostering in their opposition to Women of the Wall and of progressive Judaism.

A service to address the lingering loss for covid-era zoom Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremonies. Far too many became B'Mitzvah away from the synagogue, instead taking the first steps on the path to becoming an adult on Zoom. It is time for staff teams to address the lingering sense of loss.

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 Rabbinic Student Reflects on a Synagogue’s Fire Response By (then Rabbinic Student, now) Rabbi Elana Nemitoff-Bresler After the Fires: Celebrating Thanksgiving When Homes are Lost or Damaged By Sally Weber MSW and Rabbi Paul Kipnes   How To's Rabbi’s Disaster To Do List: 10 Community-Restoring Actions from the SoCal Fires By Rabbi Paul K

A mass shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue.A mass shooting in the local dance bar.A raging fire, forcing the evacuation of the synagogue and 75 percent of our congregation. This is the story of when the rabbi experienced trauma after these events.

In this spoken word poem, explore how Abraham's parents might have felt as he went off from Haran to the Promised Land, in search of his future.

After 11 deaths in 11 days, I had it out with God. I realized with over 419,000 dead in American fromCovid-19 decimating, it was time for that conversation with the Creator.

When confronted with the first of many “shelter at home” quarantine orders, many houses of worship struggled with a perplexing dilemma: Who are we if we couldn’t be together? The story of one synagogue’s journey to answer that question illustrates the power of perspective and the potential of pushing through uncertainty into the unknown.

During this pandemic, we can Pay It Forward, taking care of a whole web of workers, businesses, and organizations that have long cared for, served, or sustained us.

Responding to a Disruptive Marketplace for synagogues: The choice is pretty clear: Kehillat Netflix or Beit Blockbuster. Which one will your synagogue become? Kehillat Netflix takes its name from a company that openly and confidently takes chances, risks failure, goes up against conventional wisdom, constantly pivots strategically, and thus has so far ensured both its survival and its success. Beit Blockbuster closed down.

Imagine having to make this decision: to fly home to hold your wife’s hand as she buries her mom on the West Coast or to remain on the East Coast to oversee the diagnosis and care of your mother who just had a major stroke. What would you do?