WORDS THAT BREATHE

Genesis, Parashat Bereshit, overflows with abiding lessons about Creation, humanity's purpose, Torah's truth, life's unclarity, radical amazement. Here are this year's favorite Torah Tidbits.

Resources for Preparing for Funerals and Eulogies, Compiled by Rabbi Paul Kipnes After a Particularly Tragic Death; To Create Community; Eulogy Frames; For an aged person without survivors

"To say the NFTY-EIE program changed my life would be an understatement. The four months I spent in Israel were the happiest times of my life so far." Reflections of teen Rockey Greenberg on a high school semester in Israel.

Why do we assemble 400 Mitzvah Day Comfort Bags? How do we know they really touch people’s lives? Ask a former foster care child and our Mitzvah Day chair.

What can you do in a sukkah? Choose among 70+ favorite Sukkah-Dwelling activities, courtesy of friends from the JEDLAB and Central Conference of American Rabbis Facebook groups.

Why do we celebrate Sukkot with the Etrog, such a bumpy tart fruit? Why not a beautiful smooth fruit, like a tomato or shiny red apple?

After attending the Republican Presidential Debate at the Reagan Library, I came away with 5 impressions that related Jews and the Jewish future.

Do you know what happens when we fail to correctly differentiate between need and want? In the space between those two concepts, that’s where sin is born.

We can listen better. Especially us, Jews and Jewish families, who are heirs to a tradition of compassion that calls us to bear witness to the vulnerable. Listen to people of color, to people struggling through life, to the people next door.

Be the blessing you intended to be and buck the trend. When deciding whether to kvetch or kvell about the High Holy Day services, be a kveller.

Your spiritual homework for the High Holy Days is to review your relationships and to begin the process of cleaning them up.

Judaism teaches us 6 steps of teshuvah. The High Holy Days are a reminder for those procrastinators among us to get moving on this life-fixing process. These 6 steps of teshuvah are distillation of the medieval rabbi Maimonides’ Laws of Repentance.

Teen Carly Feinstein speaks about how Mitzvah Corps Costa Rica's social justice work transformed her. Congregation Or Ami's young leader changed the world.

Cleaning out closets for Rosh Hashana leads us to the real work of the Hebrew month of Elul, preparing ourselves spiritually for the High Holy Days.

Caption Contest: How would you caption this picture of a puppy munching on our new book, Jewish Spiritual Parenting? Write your caption in the comments to enter a raffle for your own personalized autographed copy.

Prayer comes naturally to some, but is more challenging to others. Teen Leader Olivia Sharon, however, explains where she finds meaning in prayer.

Who would have thought marriage equality would lead us back to Jewish tradition? It happened with two Jewishly committed, legally married lesbians and a beautiful baby girl.

Learning about injustice while marching for justice to Montgomery, Alabama, I discovered the inequities for people of color in America today. I shook my world. #justicesummer #tzedeksummer

You should also send your rabbis, educators, cantors and youth professionals to Jewish summer camp for their benefit and for the benefit of your congregation. Why?

Most people cringe at the mention of this invasive procedure. Most everybody seems uncomfortable discussing something even minimally connected to our nether region orifices.