Tonight we honor the very beginning of our congregation. On January 18, 1952, “The Suburban Temple of Greater Detroit” held its first Friday Night Sabbath Service. They met at Burton School, with a borrowed ark from Temple Beth El, using copies of this Union Prayer Book, borrowed from both Temple Beth El and Temple Israel.

The early 1950’s are certainly the “good old days” for my generation and the generation of our parents. Coming out of WWII, we remember an active economy that promised better times despite the looming international threat of Soviet communism. Detroit was booming and the automobile carried us into the suburbs. In those “good old days” life was simple-- we all knew the social rules of civility and propriety. A growing middle-class was purchasing homes and taking vacations, and there was a place in that socio-economic expansion for a Jewish community that was more and more confident that they were becoming real Americans. And while there was still an overt and accepted prejudice that precluded Jews and Negroes from jobs and housing and country clubs—at least for our community, it seemed to be getting better.  (more)

I find that it is easier to celebrate Thanksgiving than it is to think about Thanksgiving theologically!

That "Hallmark" image of extended family seated around the overflowing table on Thursday afternoon, telling the story of the first Thanksgiving and remembering the Thanksgivings of previous years, has become an American icon. In that 'greeting card' image, the family gives thanks to God for blessings received, as the edges of the scene glow in golden hues. What a warm and wonderful celebration—just don’t think too much about the theology it represents. (more)

In preparing for tonight, I presumed that since it’s Halloween, and we wouldn’t have children coming to services, so that it would be all right for me to tell some very scary stories from our Jewish Heritage. This is, after all, an evening of ghosts, ghouls and goblins, of things “that go bump in the night.” On Halloween we protect ourselves from scary, not-of-this-world night-time visitors by dressing-up like them, by joining them in their neighborhood prowl—hiding in their midst so as not be become their target. It’s too bad that we think of Halloween as “not-Jewish”, as a celebration of a magical, mystical, spooky world that is somehow outside of Judaism. But we too have our ghosts and goblins, spooks and monsters. And tonight, appropriately, we’ll talk about them.  (MORE)

After my Yom Kippur morning message on “Fear, Faith, Death and Resurrection” I was asked by several members if there was something about my health that they should know. There isn’t, I’m just fine-- though I need to lose a few pounds! No, my message was not prompted by a cause for concern, but because this is what people “of a certain age,” sometimes think about!

Among other increasingly apparent realities, it’s harder for me to get moving in the morning, and I can’t stay up as late at night. And I’ve come to the sad realization that when others refer to “middle aged”-- they’re talking about folks younger than me. And in my line of work: making hospital visits and writing eulogies-- I am regularly aware of the frailty of life and living. Thinking about all that, these days more than in former years, prompted my Yom Kippur message. (more)