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

Rabbi Amy Feder

Digging deep for meaning amid bevy of sacred rites and rules

By Rabbi Amy FederPublished March 5, 2014

Every October, there is one particular morning when our congregation’s Religious School telephone begins ringing off the hook at exactly 9 a.m. and doesn’t stop ringing all day long.  That’s the day, somewhat arbitrarily chosen, when families of...

Rabbi Josef A. Davidson serves Congregation B’nai Amoona.

Community’s embrace opens heart to God

By Rabbi Josef A. DavidsonPublished August 1, 2012

Many years ago when I was a hospital chaplain providing pastoral care to Jewish patients and residents of all of the local hospitals and nursing homes in the Denver area, I met a young woman in a locked psychiatric unit who had attempted suicide.  I...

The importance of ‘Shalom Bayit’

By Rabbi Dale SchreiberPublished May 30, 2012

Naso is the longest portion in the weekly readings of Torah with 176 verses. After detailing the priestly purpose in the book of Leviticus, we come to the Book of Numbers and guess what? The first two portions begin with a census. Naso begins with an...

Rabbi James Stone Goodman

When the most that can be said about something is nothing

By Rabbi James Stone GoodmanPublished May 16, 2012

O holy parshat Behar, you are speaking to me in the voice of metaphor, poetics, images. We call an image a mashal — a parable, an example. You open with the mashal: Begin with keeping the Sabbath of the land (Leviticus 25:2). The Sabbath of the land;...

Rabbi Dale Schreiber

Understanding the Call to Godliness

By Rabbi Dale SchreiberPublished May 18, 2011

At Sinai, I imagine the Israelites might have felt a compelling need to look up as God was up there above and beyond the clouds. Given such a lofty beginning, it would be understandable to think that Torah was also up there- beyond our comprehension....

Parashat Metzora: Strange reality, spiritual leprosy

By Rabbi Mordecai MillerPublished April 6, 2011

At any point in the day we are subject to some kind of mood. Just like colors, some may be intense and some may be almost bland.  Surprise, pleasure, stress, joy, security, anxiety, anger, dislike, depression, dismay, anticipation, disappointment - the...

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