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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

Elizabeth Hersh is Senior Rabbi at Temple Emanuel.

The difference between remembering, forgetting

BY RABBI ELIZABETH HERSHPublished September 20, 2017

Ha’azinu is a lesson about remembering and forgetting. While this Torah portion includes a piece of poetry, one may suggest that the entire Torah is poetry. Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (1817-1893) wrote: “One of the distinguishing marks of poetry...

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.

Sing a song of holiness

BY RABBI DALE SCHREIBERPublished September 13, 2017

Netzavim-Vayelech is a double portion, although the tradition treats them like conjoined twins, inextricably linked. Netzavim  (stand) and Veyelech (go out) are bookends.  They are read just short of the High Holiday when we gather to do the work that...

Rabbi Shulamit Cenker, M.Ed., was ordained by the Hebrew Seminary, a rabbinical school for the deaf and hearing, in Skokie, Ill. She completed a year of postordination learning at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem before moving to St Louis in early 2016. Rabbi Cenker teaches adults beginner and intermediate Hebrew for the Center for Jewish Learning of the Jewish Federation of St Louis and is a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical Association.

Curses and beliefs: To what do we attest?

BY RABBI SHULAMIT CENKERPublished September 7, 2017

It’s Elul. In Parshat Ki Tavo, as the Israelites are nearing the end of the journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom in Eretz Yisrael, G-d instructs Moshe to tell the people to enter the Promised Land: “You are entering a land of milk and honey …...

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

Debate for the sake of heaven and those in need

By Benjamin ChaidellPublished August 30, 2017

Many of the hot-button political issues today relate to how we assist those on the margins of society. Refugees, government subsidized health care and social welfare programs are issues that divide Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives.I...

Rabbi James Stone Goodman serves Congregation Neve Shalom and is a past president of the St. Louis Rabbinical Association. 

What’s the blessing, what’s the curse

By Rabbi James Stone GoodmanPublished August 17, 2017

See, I have set before you this day, a blessing and a curse.  — Deuteronomy 11:26.Parashat Re’eh opens with part of the farewell speech of Moses, here perched at the edge of the Promised Land, knowing that he is not destined to take us into the land. He...

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

Parshat Eikev: It’s the small things that matter

By Maharat Rori Picker NeissPublished August 10, 2017

“If you do obey these laws.”  — Deuteronomy 7:12This line opens our Torah portion this week. But the translation is not quite sufficient. More accurately, the Torah states, “If you eikev obey these rules.” Eikev, the namesake of our Torah...

Rabbi Lane Steinger is Rabbi Emeritus at Shir Hadash Reconstructionist Community in St. Louis.

“Heart and Soul” An Enduring Classic

By LANE STEINGERPublished August 2, 2017

“Heart and Soul” is the title of a song composed in 1938 with music by Hoagy Carmichael and lyrics by Frank Loesser. It soon became a jazz and big band standard. The 1961 recording by the Cleftones endures as a rock ‘n’ roll and R&B anthem....

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.

Hope is our antidote to fear

By Rabbi Dale SchreiberPublished July 26, 2017

Deuteronomy, the final book of the Pentateuch, is called Devarim in Hebrew. It opens with Eileh ha’Devarim – These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel on the other side of the Jordan in the 40th year. The book is a review of the incidents...

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

Fulfill vows with actions, not words

By Rabbi Noah ArnowPublished July 20, 2017

I was a little proud, and a little embarrassed, too, when I realized they had given me the hard part.  I was 18. It was the summer between high school and college, and I was in Jerusalem studying for a month at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies....

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

Top quality of a leader: Leadership

By Rabbi Jonah ZinnPublished July 12, 2017

One does not need to look far these days to find someone questioning the qualifications of our leaders. It is a topic of constant discussion and strong feelings on television, social media, and daily conversation with friends and even total strangers....

The donkey and the blind seer

By Rabbi Dr. Neal RosePublished July 5, 2017

This week’s Torah reading finds us in the middle of the Book Numbers. The book begins with a very detailed description of the military and religious infrastructure to be used as our ancestors travel from the desert to the promised land. Yet the journey...

Rabbi Brad Horwitz is director of Jewish engagement and adult programs at the Jewish Community Center.

Admitting mistake is first step toward healing

By Rabbi Brad HorwitzPublished June 29, 2017

In Parshat Chukat, we read the well-known story about when the Israelites complain about lack of water. God tells Moses to speak to the rock, and water will come forth. In a moment of anger and frustration, instead of speaking to it as God instructed,...

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