Blog

If you have entertained the thought, “I want to make a difference in our community,” but are unsure how best to make a significant and meaningful impact, I encourage you to read on.

Founded in 1987 by local churches and synagogues, including Temple Sinai, the Community Assistance Center (CAC) provides critical support for thousands of Sandy Springs and Dunwoody residents each year.  The CAC provides basic needs assistance for...Read more...

From Shabbat to Shabbat. This is what we call our weekly Sinai email message. 

In it, we reflect upon the week that has passed, the events we have hosted, the experiences we have had. We turn our eyes toward words of Torah as we prepare for the upcoming Shabbat, the holiest day on our calendar. It is the day of peace and it comes every week, even when peace seems far from our hearts. 

Of course, the war continues to...Read more...

In this week’s Torah portion, Tzav, we read that the fire must be kept burning on the sacrificial altar. “The fire will burn forever upon the altar; it will never be put out.” (Leviticus 6:6) 

Having spent a significant amount of time around fire pits since 2020, I’ve learned that fires require continuous care. Wood must often be added to fuel the fire. Logs must frequently be rearranged in order to keep the...Read more...

We are excited to announce the launch of a new streaming platform, Vimeo Live, for virtual participants to experience Temple Sinai’s worship and lifecycle services.  This upgrade, which was unanimously approved by the Board of Trustees, will allow us to continue improving the quality of all worshipper’s experiences. After extensive dialogue with members, we identified this platform, and key features, to ensure that we continue...Read more...

In March, 2020, our congregation first implemented policies and protocols designed to safeguard our community against what we had hoped would be the short-term impact of Covid-19. Nearly 2 years later, we find ourselves moving from pandemic to endemic.
 
A large percentage of our community has become fully vaccinated and boosted (mitigating against the effects of Covid) and our understanding of Covid and its variants has evolved,...Read more...

February is my favorite month of the year for many reasons. Yes, I am partial to Valentine’s Day chocolates, and yes, February is my birthday month. And yes, who doesn’t love watching AJFF films?! However, I also love February because it marks something about which I am very passionate - Jewish Disabilities Awareness, Acceptance & Inclusion Month (JDAIM).

In the Book of Isaiah, we are taught: "For my house...Read more...

As this week’s Torah reading covers Parashat Terumah, translated as “gifts” and referencing the gifts that the Israelites were to bring for the construction of their tabernacle, I found myself particularly compelled by the image offered by Rabbi Aaron Panken, of blessed memory:

“Imagine the image. You go up into your attic and you find a fantastically wrapped, absolutely beautiful, unbelievably...Read more...

This week we are centering our Shabbat around the topic of Reproductive Freedom. Repro Shabbat is an opportunity for us to highlight the critical importance of reproductive health access, reproductive rights, and reproductive justice, and to learn more about Judaism’s approach to these issues.

Along with over 700 institutions, congregations this week are centering their messages, sermons and music around this very important and...Read more...

My son Ben forwarded a tweet to me this week: “Moses wandered the desert for a shorter time than Dawg fans waited for a natty. Wow.” 

For UGA alumni and Georgia Bulldog fans everywhere, Monday’s long-awaited national championship has been a source of understandable jubilation.  The last time UGA ended its season atop the college football mountain was in 1980 and the enormous, shared sense of relief and release...Read more...

This summer I went to Israel for the first time through the Merrill and Sheila Wynne Judaic Scholarship. I chose to use the scholarship towards the Jewish National Fund’s Roots Israel trip. Teens from around the US gathered...Read more...

As 2021 draws to a close with the realities of Covid-19 and all its variants continuing to wreak havoc in our lives, many might be challenged to find much that is positive in what this year has wrought. While the end of a calendar year typically elicits joyful reflection on the past year’s accomplishments along with a list of personal resolutions for the secular new year ahead, the conclusion of 2021 undeniably finds us in great...Read more...

I do so love when holidays intersect, and this Shabbat is no exception. While Jews around the world gather with friends and family to welcome Shabbat, a ritual complete with well wishes, with blessings, with an embrace of light and good and kindness and compassion, our Christian friends and siblings gather with family and friends to celebrate Christmas, a ritual complete with those same heartening and heartwarming values. This Friday night...Read more...

While Martin Luther King sat in a Birmingham jail, he penned a letter to his fellow clergy explaining why he thought it necessary to engage in civil disobedience. He criticized their vocal opposition to his efforts, saying that religion must serve the cause of justice rather than maintaining the status quo. In King’s lengthy “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he wrote:

“But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from...Read more...

The more often and the more regularly we receive any blessing, the less likely we are to be aware of or fully appreciate it.  What is constantly granted is easily taken for granted.  “I have often thought,” Helen Keller wrote, “that it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during their adult life.  Darkness would make him more appreciative of light; silence would...Read more...

Celebrations are wonderful things, and even more special when they are richly deserved.

Lauren Mahady has been with the Temple Sinai Preschool as a music teacher since it first opened 35 years ago. She has used her considerable gifts generously and with patience, inspiring our youngest learners to find their way into music and to sing the timeless songs of our people. I, like so many parents, relished the days when my children would...Read more...