Temple Emanu-El, Oak Park, MI

Parenting Podcast: Raising Moral Children: Know Thyself, Adonai Echad and Ob-la-di, ob-la-d

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by Rabbi Leora Kaye I’m a rabbi, and my husband’s an atheist. My husband Doug’s atheism is well thought-out. He’s a loving, intelligent guy who doesn’t believe in God and hasn’t since he was eleven. He is moral, compassionate and Jewish, and he does not believe that his ethics are related to God. We believe parenting should be deliberate and purposeful, much like Reform Judaism. Choices should be based on knowledge, specifically knowledge about what kind of parent you want to be, what works in your family system and what works for your son or daughter. In this week’s Jewish Parenting Podcast, psychologist Richard Weissbourd says that while most parents do care about raising moral children, few make it their number one priority. Outside of the conversations my husband and I had trying to decide if a relationship between an atheist and a rabbi could work, we had one discussion [...]

An Uncommon Debbie Story

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The first I ever heard of Debbie Friedman was to see her name printed on the inside covers of my synagogue’s prayer books, naming her the author of the modern Mi Shebeirach tune. Growing up, that was all I ever knew of her – just a name above the words on a page. I grew up attending a Reform congregation, but I did not grow up “in the Movement,” per se. My mother and I were members of a small congregation in Northeast Ohio where there was no organized youth group, no NFTY or BBYO. There were just six students in my bat mitzvah class, and though we considered ourselves friends, we all attended different schools, which made friendships difficult outside of synagogue-related activities – and at my suburban public school, I was one of just two Jewish students. Needless to say, though I always identified as Jewish, I did [...]

D’var Torah, Yitro: Everything Flows from God: Everything Depends on You

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by Lucy H. F. Dinner This year, I have the pleasure of studying the Book of Exodus together with the lay-led Hebrew Bible study group at Temple Beth Or in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I serve as senior rabbi. Thisd’var Torah draws on comments and realizations from members of the study group. The Ten Commandments, iconic through the ages, open with a statement of God’s redeeming power. The Israelites are poised at the base of Mount Sinai; a thick cloud has descended. God’s Voice bellows in the thunder: “I the Eternal am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides Me” (Exodus 20:2–3). Some say that the first two commandments were all that the Israelites actually heard. The rest were transmitted to them through Moses. Rabbi Hezekiah b. Manoah, who compiled an anthology of earlier commentators, explains: [...]

My child is not a mitzvah project – or is he?

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by Susan Wiener I can still remember the day, my daughter Tracey ran into the house and announced my neighbor, Nancy, would like Jacob to be Adam’s mitzvah project for his bar mitzvah. Before I could even open my mouth and scream NO, my father, who was visiting, quietly said “be nice, say ok”. I swallowed my words and said “ok”. But it wasn’t. Next time I went to my synagogue I saw my Rabbi and tried to rationalize this request, but ended up pleading with him to agree with me “my son is not a mitzvah project”. In the end I had to tell my neighbor that this wasn’t going to work. A couple of years later the town in which I live in began an alternative sports league for children with disabilities. The program has a head coach and the opportunity for teens to volunteer for their mitzvah [...]

The Torah In Haiku: Beshalach

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We stood at the sea Until the waters parted Midrash tells us why The first to step in Nachshon Ben Aminadav Then G-d split the sea Nachshon’s leap of faith Showed the courage leaders need Going first is hard