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A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

Dvar Torah

Maharat Rori Picker Neiss is executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council. 

A Covenant worth its salt

BY MAHARAT RORI PICKER NEISSPublished March 14, 2018

In the Middle Ages, salt was so expensive it was sometimes referred to as white gold.Perhaps, then, it is not so surprising that as the Book of Leviticus opens to describe for us the sacrifices that the Israelites are to bring to God now that the Tabernacle...

Rabbi Noah Arnow serves Kol Rinah and is a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical Association.

We all have sacred skills (beyond goat spinning)

BY RABBI NOAH ARNOWPublished March 7, 2018

How do you spin a goat?  What would it even mean to “spin a goat?”  Why would one want to spin a goat?  Yet in describing all the work that the Israelites did to build the tabernacle, the Torah says, “All the women whose hearts inspired them...

Rabbi Dale Schreiber is a chaplain providing Jewish care coordination for Pathways Hospice and Palliative Care and has a private practice, Renewal-in-Action, specializing in resiliency, spiritual development and compassion fatigue recovery.

Investment of Shabbat helps restore the soul

BY RABBI DALE SCHREIBERPublished February 28, 2018

Ki Tisa begins when you lift the head of the B’nei Yisrael. To an ancient listener, “lifting the head” signified a census. This one indicated who would contribute toward building the Tent of Meeting, where the Divine Presence would rest in the midst...

Rabbi Josef Davidson

We are each ‘holy to the Eternal’

BY RABBI JOSEF DAVIDSONPublished February 22, 2018

You shall make a frontlet of pure gold and engrave on it the seal inscription: Holy to the Eternal. Suspend it on a cord of blue, so that it may remain on the headdress; it shall remain on the front of the headdress. It shall be on Aaron’s forehead....

Rabbi Tracy Nathan

Holy teamwork builds holy dwellings

BY RABBI TRACY NATHANPublished February 15, 2018

Let them make me a holy place, and I will dwell among them. According to all that I show you – the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furnishings – so you shall you make it.  — Exodus 25:8-9The Book of Exodus begins with the...

Rabbi Jonah Zinn serves Congregation Shaare Emeth and is a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical Association. 

Jews have a responsibility to shelter the stranger

BY RABBI JONAH ZINNPublished February 8, 2018

My ancestors were wanderers. Abraham left his homeland and all that he knew in exchange for the promise of greatness and blessing for our people. Generations later a severe drought in Canaan led Jacob and his household to journey to Egypt. The Torah...

Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose holds the Rabbi Bernard Lipnick Senior Rabbinic Chair at Congregation B’nai Amoona in St. Louis.

Look below surface for the sacred and transcendent

By Rabbi Carnie Shalom RosePublished February 1, 2018

“What’s in a name?That which we call a rose,By any other name would smell as sweet.”— William Shakespeare, “Romeo & Juliet”As is the case with all the books of our Holy Torah, the second book of Scripture, Sefer Shmot in Hebrew, derives...

Rabbi Dale Schreiber is a chaplain providing Jewish care coordination for Pathways Hospice and Palliative Care and has a private practice, Renewal-in-Action, specializing in resiliency, spiritual development and compassion fatigue recovery.

From darkness comes light

BY RABBI DALE SCHREIBERPublished January 18, 2018

The whole Torah is about journey. The journeys of Genesis bring the Israelites into Egypt as an honored people who become enslaved. The Book of Exodus, called Shemot (Names), narrates the journey of a new collective of slaves into a people called Israel. The...

Benjamin Chaidell is the Rabbi Bernard Lipnick Rabbinic Intern at Congregation B’nai Amoona and is a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical Association.

Becoming ‘woke’ to oppression, then and now

BY BENJAMIN CHAIDELLPublished January 10, 2018

“Stay woke!” The word “woke” has increasingly come to mean not only the past tense of “awake” but also to be socially aware, especially as related to issues of racial and social justice, according to Merriam-Webster. The term originated...

Brigitte Rosenberg is Senior Rabbi at United Hebrew  Congregation and is a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical Association. 

Six amazing women who connect us with Torah

BY RABBI BRIGITTE ROSENBERGPublished January 4, 2018

“Behind every great man is a great women.”Though we don’t often hear this phrase anymore, it was once  touted by the early feminist movement. Today, we might alter the phrase and utilize the words “next to or beside.” But regardless of the...

Elizabeth Hersh is Senior Rabbi at Temple Emanuel.

Learning how to say goodbye

BY RABBI ELIZABETH HERSHPublished December 28, 2017

Parashat Vayechi brings tears to my eyes and joy to my heart. Every emotion is wrapped into the blessings, disappointments and challenges of saying goodbye to a loved one, and the consequential changing family dynamics that follow the burial of a family...

Rabbi Josef Davidson

Jews’ role: to speak truth to power

BY RABBI JOSEF DAVIDSONPublished December 21, 2017

It is not often easy to speak truth to power, to approach one who is on a higher station in life, who is in public office or is otherwise perceived to be unapproachable. This is especially true when that person holds something over one. Often, I have...

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