From Rabbi Rachel Kort

Returning to My Roots – Planting Together for Our Future  [The ORacle, February 2019 Issue] The motto of my rabbinic school was “Do what you love.” When people ask, “How did you decide to become a rabbi?” I instantly think of the loving Jewish community that helped raise me. Growing up, I saw my community […]

Engaging with Israel   [The ORacle, January 2019 Issue] It was easy for me to fall in love with Israel, coming of age in the 1990s. I was inspired by the egalitarian army service and the rescue of Ethiopian Jews. I mourned when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated and joined with the majority of […]

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 lead […]

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.