WORDS THAT BREATHE

I confess there is so much I don’t know about women (Rabbis) and the experience of women in the rabbinate. But I’m listening and learning.

The clergy of Congregation Or Ami (Calabasas) share their vision of the synagogue as a sanctuary of kindness, your second home.

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?

Rabbi Paul Kipnes discusses the centrality of inclusion at Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, CA

Synagogues, like our own Congregation Or Ami, are retooling, experimenting, failing at times, and picking themselves up to innovate anew. The results are exhilarating! Jewish Start Up Synagogues – often the older shuls that are renewing themselves – are exciting and exceedingly hopeful.

Lech L'cha - our journeys, especially those that lead us beyond the familiar or out of our comfort zones, can lead to inspiring metamorphosis. When Abraham and Sarah ventured into the unknown, they became a long lasting great nation. We pray that by embracing inclusion our synagogues, camps, youth movements, day schools, JCC’s and other Jewish organizations will similarly heed the Divine call.

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.