From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life
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Bringing weekly Jewish insights into your life. Join Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz, Rabbi Michelle Robinson and Rav-Hazzan Aliza Berger of Temple Emanuel in Newton, MA as they share modern ancient wisdom.
From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life
2w ago
The IDF has an intelligence unit whose name does not exactly roll off the tongue. It is called Terrain Analysis, Accurate Mapping, Visual Collection and Interpretation Agency. As Dan Senor and Saul Singer point out in their new book The Genius of Israel, which came out on November 7, 2023, the job of this intelligence unit is to analyze millions of details in millions of images gathered by Israeli satellites, airplanes and drones
For example, if the war in Lebanon happens, Israel would need to send paratroopers into enemy territory. How do they get resupplied with food and other essentials? Is ..read more
From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life
2w ago
Dronme Davis tells a powerful story. She was nine. At the time, she had developed the habit of biting her nails until they were raw and sometimes even bleeding. A teacher told her, in all seriousness, “if you keep biting your nails, one day you’re doing to meet a boy and you’re going to want him to date you and he’s going to be holding your hand and will look down and see how disgusting your hands are and he’s not going to want to date you.” Even as a nine-year-old, Dronme knew that there was something very wrong with this picture. How could it be that her teacher didn ..read more
From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life
2w ago
Please look at this iconic photograph of a chair at the Constitutional Convention. The chair has a sun which is ambiguous. Benjamin Franklin famously wondered out loud, is the sun rising or setting? https://files.constantcontact.com/d3875897501/094c58c3-688a-4ef0-a325-c75a886b067a.png Now please read this evocative article entitled “The New American Judaism” by Shira Telushkin published recently in The Atlantic. https://files.constantcontact.com/d3875897501/abe8a1a9-3ebd-45aa-b776-e060145674b6.pdf?rdr=true The presenting problem is the great rabbi shortage. There are not enough rabbis to serve ..read more
From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life
2w ago
This week we enjoy the reflections of Sonia Saltzman, Noah Rivkin, Rhiannon Thomas, Michael Gardener, and Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz on their Mitzvah Mission to Israel ..read more
From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life
2w ago
The Temple Emanuel 50-person mitzvah mission to Israel last week experienced the confusing reality that diametrically contradictory truths can both be true. Normal or not normal? Is Israel a nation in mourning, as Rachel Korazim taught? Or is Israel getting past October 7, not in mourning, trying to live a normal life, as Donniel Hartman taught? Yes, and yes. Returning the hostages? Is it absolutely essential that Israel do everything possible to bring the hostages home? Or will it undermine the success of Israel’s war effort if it has to fight with one hand tied behind its back in order to se ..read more
From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life
2w ago
This Shabbat, I’m going to share a personal story very different from the kinds of sermons I used to give when I worked in a congregation. I want to be clear it is my story. I recognize that in this room there are Autistic people and family members who have their own perspectives that may differ from mine. They are just as important and valid. We are a large and diverse community.
Three years ago, a neuropsychologist assessed our then 3-year-old son and called a few weeks later to tell us that was Autistic. I was so relieved. Our son was verbally precocious, made intense eye contact, an ..read more
From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life
1M ago
When her son was diagnosed as Autistic at age 3, Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman dove into the neurodiversity movement to understand Autistic culture from the inside. What she learned there changed her life. As her son blossomed into a proud Autistic identity, Rabbi Shoshana discovered she was Autistic, too – and that the radical reimagining of normal that benefitted her child could also transform her wellbeing. Interweaving personal narrative with classical Torah, Rabbi Shoshana will speak on the liberatory message of Autistic culture, not only for Autistics but for all of us.
Rabbi Shoshana Me ..read more
From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life
1M ago
Have you ever said yes to a commitment without knowing what that yes would mean to your life?
If you have taken a new job, moved to a new city, gotten married, had children, or nurtured a loved one through a rough patch, you have said this type of yes.
The address for saying yes without knowing what yes means is the famous phrase “na’aseh v’nishmah” in Ex. 24:7 in our reading this week. That is what the Israelites say after receiving the Torah at Sinai and then the supplemental civil and cultic laws and statutes in this week’s portion. This phrase is translated in differ ..read more