WORDS THAT BREATHE

An open letter to Camp Newman teens, staff and alumni from Rabbi Paul Kipnes about getting through after the fire. (Okay to share with adults too)

It is time for us to lift the veil of silence around mental illness, talking about it and our mental health journeys. Especially in the Jewish community.

Teen Dani, an 11th grader, shared her mental health journey (through depression) to an overflowing synagogue on Yom Kippur.

Seeking to extract meaning from the shiva minyan, we held onto the stories that brightened that house of mourning.

Why do we spend a Sunday morning just before Chanukah driving all over the San Fernando and Conejo Valleys delivering boxes of sufganiot to every Congregation Or Ami household?

Lessons learned while taking their last breaths. Reflections on bikkur cholim (visiting the sick) with David and Jerry. A Yom Kippur sermon.

Understanding transgender. What if gender is determined by more than genitalia and chromosomes? What if the way we have always perceived humanity has been flawed or wrong?

Alzheimer's and dementia attacks the foundational values of who we are as Jews and Jewish families. We Jews consider ourselves the people of yikzor (remembrance): as long as we remember where we came from, we will have a sense of who we are and where we are going. So what happens when we can no longer remember any of that?

How does a parent survive the death of a child? Charlotte Klein, an 81-year-old wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, reflects and offers wisdom.

91-year-old Deanna came to visit me to find some comfort after her beloved husband Alvin died. Turns out, she spent more time teaching me Torat Chayim (the Torah of Life).