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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

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

Dressing for self-identity success

By Rabbi Jonah ZinnPublished March 9, 2016

When I was in elementary school, I had a classmate who wore a shirt and tie to school every day. Although I remember his distinctive wardrobe choice decades later, I never spent much time thinking about his motives. Looking back, it would seem this was...

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

An uplifting Torah portion

By Rabbi Josef A. DavidsonPublished February 24, 2016

This week’s Torah portion, Ki Tissa, begins with a census. Moses is instructed to count the number of men available to be conscripted in the event of the need for self-defense against any enemy forces that might be encountered during their wandering...

Take my advice

By Rabbi Noah ArnowPublished July 1, 2015

A quiz. If someone offers you a suggestion for improvement in some area of your work or personal life, do you: A) ignore the advice; B) take the advice seriously; C) take the opportunity to give this person some “advice” you’ve been waiting for...

Rabbi Jim Bennett

Parashat Shemot: ‘Unto every person there is a name’

By Rabbi Jim BennettPublished January 8, 2015

“These are the names of the Children of Israel …” With these words, the book of Exodus begins. And with the recitation of the names, we encounter a new chapter in the life of our people and our history. We move beyond the family drama of the book...

Rabbi Micah Buck-Yael

A time to open doors and hearts

By Rabbi Micah Buck-YaelPublished November 12, 2014

This week, as we look in to the Torah, we find a reading that takes us through numerous losses. The parashah opens with the death of Sarah, our first mother, and it closes with the deaths of Abraham and Ishmael, our first father and our first brother....

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 Justin Kerber

D’var Torah: Finding our true calling

By Rabbi Justin KerberPublished July 4, 2012

Sage advice gives quiet strength in the midst of turmoil. Scholars of Torah are sometimes called sages. I might call the author Parker Palmer a sage. Palmer comes from the Quaker tradition — which like our own is committed to an abstract, indivisible...

Rabbi Justin Kerber

Ideals and purity in parsha Chukat

By Rabbi Justin KerberPublished June 27, 2012

Who among us hasn’t emerged from narrow straits? Is there anyone who hasn’t come through a fraught situation, maybe bruised but not beaten; blemished but not broken? Our Torah portion this week, Chukat, is famous for its enigmatic law of the Red Heifer....


Rabbi Justin Kerber serves
Temple Emanuel and is a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical
Association. 

The lost art of spontaneous prayer

By Rabbi Justin KerberPublished June 20, 2012

Every so often, the people in the Torah pray. Maybe not as often as we might expect from such a holy text, but they pray, and sometimes with breathtaking intensity. Patriarchs and Matriarchs, lowly servants, great kings and humble shepherds, prophets...

Hyim Shafner

Shelach: Running from reality

By Rabbi Hyim ShafnerPublished June 13, 2012

In this week’s Torah portion, Shelach, the Jewish people have completed the short trek from Mount Sinai to the Land of Israel. God tells them to send the heads of each tribe as spies to spy out the Land of Israel. After 40 days the spies return. Ten...

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 Josef A. Davidson serves Congregation B’nai Amoona.

Lift your head high

By Rabbi Josef DavidsonPublished May 23, 2012

As the fourth book of the Torah opens, God orders Moses and Aaron to take a census of the people, specifically those males who are of the age of conscription.  The Israelites still have many challenges to face, as they continue their journey from Mount...

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