Yom Kippur: Life, Death, and Teshuvah   Our tradition teaches that on Rosh Hashanah we relive our birth and on Yom Kippur we rehearse our death. We highlight the dichotomy between life and death in the special liturgy and ritual of this season. Rabbi Alan Lew describes how focusing on our mortality is meant to […]

Forgiveness after #MeToo Sometimes the world of our Torah doesn’t seem so different than our own modern world. As the Torah and our sacred scriptures recount the lives of our ancestors, we read and recognize stories of sexual violence and sexual objectification. In our ancient tradition, few were given a voice to share their own […]

The Creation of Adam: How the Entire Universe Can Change in a Day   One of the neat things about being a mom of an almost 5 year old is that my daughter Galit is changing and growing right before my very eyes! I think all the sunshine in the Pacific Northwest helped her grow […]

Watch a video conversation with Rabbi Kort about how your family can prepare for the High Holy Days.

Our High Holy Day season offers us an opportunity for t’shuvah. T’shuvah is often interpreted as repentance, but literally translates as a “return.” This process of return does not follow a straight path; t’shuvah requires us to turn both backwards and forwards. Many different and sometimes seemingly conflicting moods and modes comprise our journey of […]

(Daughters of Zelophehad by Janet Shaffer, 3 panels Oil on Canvas 2006) Shabbat Shalom! In our Torah this Shabbat we meet the five Daughters of Zelophehad who challenge the legal status quo to help honor their father’s name and legacy. God wasn’t angry at these 5 women. Rather, God agrees that their perspective is more […]