One of the great privileges I have as a congregational rabbi is meeting with thoughtful, earnest adults who are interested in joining the Jewish People. They almost always come to our meetings armed with the many books they have already devoured and...

In Jewish thought, Creation and Revelation are considered ongoing, renewable and recyclable. Ideas recorded in the biblical text are often highlighted through liturgy. In the morning, we recite or chant the prayer Yotzer Ohr which refers to God as “former...

(JTA) — For Jewish fans of American Girl dolls, Hanukkah came early this year. Last week, the popular doll company released a new set of holiday doll outfits and accessories to diversify its holiday outfits. Kids can now dress up their dolls in special...

There is a popular saying: Beginnings are difficult. It holds true whether it is beginning an article for the paper, a new position in one’s vocation, a new school in one’s education, a new relationship or a new year. Beginnings are awkward,...

The end of the Jewish harvest festival, Sukkot, is near. The annual holiday, when Jews build temporary huts known as sukkahs and eat, celebrate and in some cases, sleep under them, ends tomorrow night, Sept. 27. Many Jews throughout St. Louis built...

Sukkot is one of Judaism’s three pilgrimage festivals, when our ancestors trekked to the temples in Jerusalem to make sacrifices. Now, many Orthodox Jews in the New York area make a different sort of holiday pilgrimage — to amusement parks. During...

Sukkot 2021 sure does feel a bit more like Sukkot 2020 than I thought it would a few months ago. We are still in the midst of a pandemic, still physically distancing, still not seeing each other’s lips. Luckily, a sukkah is mainly an open, outdoor...

Given the ongoing concerns about COVID-19 and the fact that gathering outdoors is considered safer than indoors, Sukkot and its huts have provided the perfect circumstances for celebrations. Plenty of St. Louis Jews built sukkahs this year — some...

I was sitting with the truthful linguist, the Sefat Emet, the Gerer, just before he became nifter, er dead, it must have been ’04, maybe ’05 [note: 1905]. The sukkah is a chuppah, he opened with. We wedded God on the way out of Egypt. I am the...

Last spring, Bob Kaiser, a member of Nusach Hari B’nai Zion and Olivette resident, spoke with a Muslim neighbor who had just finished celebrating Ramadan. Kaiser learned that they both missed the same thing: community. “There are lessons from COVID,...