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Shalom Hevre,

Rabbi Jacob and I are switching off week to week now so that we both have the great privilege of teaching and connecting through these conversations.

Here are tomorrow's sources.  They are a piece of Talmud and a midrash on "De-Othering" Ishmael and Esau.  When such marginzalization lives on and flourishes in our tradition, it creates all kinds of disturbing moral consequences, which is why finding examples of...Read more...

Shalom Friends,

Getting this just under the wire - this week's video D'var Torah - hope it gets to you in time.  

The basic idea: the Torah ushers in a social revolution that says the "Other" is Us!

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Justin David

Dear Friends,

Join us tonight for an Erev Election Gathering tonight at 7:00 to remind us of the inherent hope of human solidarity in community.

We'll pray a little (simple Ma'ariv with Sh'ma and Amidah), reflect a little (on a text TBD), and sing a bunch.  The entire gathering should be an hour or so. 

Absolutely all are welcome and look forward to seeing you there!  

B'shalom,

Rabbi Justin...Read more...

Shabbat Shalom Friends,

Here is my video d'var Torah for this week, Noah: Revolution and Moral Vision, In Honor of Tikva Frymer-Kensky, z"l.  Frymer-Kensky, who died in 2006, was a towering scholar of the Bible and the Ancient Near East, and I draw from her book, In the Wake of the Goddesses.  I also highly recommend her book, Reading the Women of the Bible, which I will draw on again in a couple of weeks.

For more...Read more...

Dear Friends,

As we begin Parashat Beresheet, the beginning of Genesis, I am committing to a year of teaching in which I center the voices of thinkers who, in the words of the groundbreaking feminist Judith Plaskow, mine texts and ideas to bring about transformative change.  Most of these thinkers will be Jewish feminists, while some may not necessarily identify themselves as feminists or as Jewish.  But all will share a vision that...Read more...

Dear Friends,

As we look toward the end of the holidays, I hope you will consider joining with the community either for our in person Hoshanna Rabba and Simchat Torah gatherings, or our celebrations of Sh’mini Atzeret (including Yizkor) and Erev Simchat Torah online.

Hosanna Rabba (in person): Friday, October 9, 9:00 - Join us for this in-person service celebrating the final day of Sukkot, with Hallel and a...Read more...

Dear Friends,

We are offering opportunities for community members to visit the CBI Sanctuary between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur for private moments of reflection and personal prayers in front of the open Ark. 

You can sign up for a 15-minute timeslot here.

A few guidelines:

Please arrive on time. 
 

Before you leave your...Read more...

Dear Friends,

Given that this year’s High Holidays will not be like any other we have experienced, I wanted to write an overview of our online services as well as the thinking behind them.  My hope is that this letter will help you in a few ways: to guide you to the sections of the service that speak to you given our limited capacity for attention on screens; to help make the online experience more meaningful by altering...Read more...

Dear Friends,

I love tashlikh. Even though it will be different this year, we have developed a tashlikh experience that will be both safe and meaningful.

For this year we are offering a hybrid communal and Do-It-Yourself experience that we hope will be meaningful and give us all some connection to each other.  You should feel free to take part in this community Tashlikh experience on the afternoon...Read more...

I urge you to take part in two conversations organized by our Israel Committee that highlight the moral and humanitarian danger of the Netanyahu government's proposal to annex parts of the West Bank.  

T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, has written a short statement clarifying their reasons for opposing annexation. ...Read more...