From Rabbi Rachel Kort
Shabbat Message from Rabbi Kort
Our hearts are heavy with grief as we move into this Shabbat. The recovery of the bodies of six hostages over the weekend, murdered at the prime of their lives, brought with it a fresh round of mourning in the ongoing collective grief since October 7. At the same time we hold on to sorrow, […]
A time to grieve
A time to grieve A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven: A time for being born and a time for dying, A time for planting and a time for uprooting the planted; A time for slaying and a time for healing, A time for tearing down and a time […]
Taking It Day By Day
There has been a lot of conversation lately about burnout. Many of us are feeling the effects of being overstressed from more than two years of living with a pandemic. There is a “great resignation” of workers, especially in health care and education. Melanie Field and I were both drawn to the same story we […]
Support, Prayers, and Action
Dear Temple Beth Or Community: We often turn to our Shema prayer for comfort and grounding. As we process the school shooting this week in Uvalde, Texas, I want to share a kavanah (intention) written by our Reform Movement’s teenagers after the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida: When we watch the news after each […]
Lag BaOmer: Emerging from Isolation to Community
Lag BaOmer is a minor holiday celebrated with major fun. Bonfires and barbeques are the tradition in Israel and at TBO this year too. While I know our communitywill enjoy s’mores together at the beach, we can glean deep wisdom from the holiday too. Lag BaOmer is said to be the yahrzeit of the second […]
Struggling with Our Sacred Language
The name Israel, Yisrael, means вЂthe one who wrestles with God.’ In addition to being a people that wrestles with God, for thousands of years, we have wrestled with our sacred language, Hebrew, too. The first account we have of a public Torah reading is in the Book of Nehemiah. After fifty years of exile […]