Blog

Dear Parents,

We hope this message finds you doing well and adjusting to this summer reality.

As many schools in our area are announcing their plans for the return to school in August, we wanted to share an update on our reopening plans for all of our education programs (Preschool, Noar Sunday, Noar Hebrew, Madrichim and teen programs) at Temple Sinai. While our physical building currently remains closed, we are planning to...Read more...

An episode of the URJ podcast Stories We Tell featured a story, told by Rabbi Marc Katz, titled “When the Clocks Stop”.

There was once a town in Eastern Europe where, for some strange reason, all of the clocks stopped working one day. Old, new, wooden, metal, plain, beautiful…it mattered not. At 12:57 pm one day, every clock in town stopped, and people started to panic, wondering what was going...Read more...

The beginning of March. It’s come to our doorstep; a virus that steals the breath. It’s spreading like wildfire. We need to stop what we’re doing to mitigate the spread. Humankind is choking.

Earth Day, April, reports are in. Pauses in production and commuting lead to a major drop in pollution. The earth is taking her first deep breath in a century.

Late May, George Floyd gasps his last breaths under the knee of a...Read more...

Supporting text by William R. Groves, Chancellor, Antioch University

I recall the moment so clearly. I was in my second year here at Sinai and still filled with naivete and the optimism that can only come from inexperience. I was leading Torah study for the congregation and one of my conversion students was in the Saturday morning session. By the way, it starts at 9:00, should any of you wish to join. You can study in your pajamas...Read more...

Back, oh so many months ago, when live television shows were far more prevalent, I know that many of us watched with regularity one or more of the reality shows available for mindless entertainment. Anticipating and trying to guess who would get the rose, seeing how interior decorators could transform a house on a limited budget, marveling at the ways personal stylists could dramatically change a person’s appearance, salivating as chefs...Read more...

“During the Hurricane Harvey recovery, we were visiting with this beautiful older couple who had to be evacuated by boat. The wife was on dialysis, and her husband felt helpless as the house he had helped build flooded. Yet while we were sitting and speaking with them, they were smiling. I asked them how they stayed so positive. She said, ‘That storm can take my house, it can take my car, it can take my furniture and my pictures, but it...Read more...

If you’ve been able to join us for services, you might remember that I’ve been opening with a nigun I wrote in isolation, titled Resilience Nigun. Nigunim (plural) are the wordless melodies that we sing, as the music that separates what’s going on “out there” (meaning outside the sanctuary) to what’s going on “in here” (inside the sanctuary).

During these times we are exiled from our sanctuary, and are making...Read more...

Week 5, Days 29-35: May 6-12
Theme: Hope and Family

“Like the seaweed that clings to each other after each passing boat separates them, so too a family will come together with the passing of each crisis.” ~ Indonesian Proverb

On whom do we lean during difficult times? We can all imagine the people in our inner circle, the ones we call, “family.” Whether it is the family that is related to you, or the family you...Read more...

Some of you may know that running has been a huge part of my life since I was a little girl.

The New York City Marathon has always been my favorite day of the year. Growing up, I would “help” my dad train for the marathon as I sat in the running stroller and he pushed me back and forth over the Brooklyn Bridge. Many of you have heard the story of my engagement to Natan when he proposed at the end of the Paris Marathon. I even...Read more...

Week 3 Days 15-21: April 23-29
Theme: Hope, the Omer and Israel

The Omer marks the 50 days the Israelites traveled the desert from Egypt to Sinai. It also marks the wave offering of the Temple on the second day of Passover. What is the Omer and why do we count it? The Omer was an ancient Hebrew measure of grain. Biblical law forbade any use of the new barley crop until an omer was brought as an offering to the Temple in...Read more...

Week 2 Days 8-14: April 16-22
Theme: Hope and Community

"In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.” These words by Marianne Williamson tell us that the work of our community can be in and of itself a source of hope. Sharing moments via Zoom or Facetime, sending care packages, making sure people who need help getting food get it; these...Read more...

During this time of pandemic, it seems we do a lot of counting; we are acutely aware of the days and weeks we are spending sheltered in place. However, we have an opportunity to turn to our Jewish tradition to transform our counting into a countdown of hope. The period of the Omer runs from Passover through the seven weeks leading up to Shavuout. Passover represents our freedom from slavery, Shavuout celebrates God giving us the Torah at...Read more...

Throughout the generations, “Jerusalem” has been the central theme of Jewish song and prayer. Most notably, in just a few days, we will read from the Passover Haggadah and sing “B’shanah Habaah, next year in Jerusalem.” As Jews, we live every day with a sense of nostalgia, a sense of yearning for Israel, our holy city, and our sacred sites. Living so far from Israel, our sanctuaries and chapels have become the center of...Read more...

This week begins a new book of Torah, Leviticus, or in Hebrew, Vayikra, meaning “God called out.” God calls to Moses to relay to the people the kinds of sacrifices they should be offering in the Tabernacle. There are five types of offerings mentioned, each of which can have meaning to us in these extraordinary times of pandemic:

Olah – an offering of ascension. Let us rise to meet the needs of family, community and humanity both...Read more...

It has been a groundbreaking and monumental week, and not in the way we would have liked. Six days have passed since last Shabbat...that day in which we settled into the idea of what COVID-19 might mean for our Temple Sinai family. And, well, somehow, we survived the week and even braced ourselves for more weeks to come. We have made it here. As each day passed, I found myself thanking God for things that I ordinarily would never even think...Read more...