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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 Scott Shafrin is Associate Rabbi at Kol Rinah and a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical Association, which coordinates the weekly d’var Torah for the Light.

Coming close to where we need to be

BY RABBI SCOTT SHAFRINPublished January 2, 2020

As we come to the end of the year, it can be tempting to focus on setting goals, creating resolutions, and imagining dreams for the year ahead. But all too often, we fall short of these goals and end up frustrated, whether we want to move ahead in our...

Rabbi Josef Davidson serves Congregation B’nai Amoona and is a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical and Cantorial Association, which coordinates the weekly d’var Torah for the Jewish Light.

A story we often don’t study in religious school

BY RABBI JOSEF DAVIDSONPublished December 12, 2019

I have one sister and three brothers. My brothers and I were fiercely protective of our sister, especially when she came of age to date. Her dates would have to run the gauntlet! During her high school years, I don’t believe that there was a single...

Rabbi Josef Davidson

Appreciate the present with a recitation of the past

BY RABBI JOSEF DAVIDSONPublished September 19, 2019

In the title story of Philip Roth’s “Goodbye Columbus,” a young man from Brooklyn’s lower middle-class has been invited to dinner at his girlfriend’s home in one of Long Island’s more posh neighborhoods. Her family has a huge home, and dinner...

Rabbi Josef Davidson

Unconditional love. What a blessing!

By Rabbi Josef DavidsonPublished June 13, 2019

It has been decades now since I first heard the late Rabbi Harold Schulweis speak to a rabbinical convention I attended. In this particular talk, Rabbi Schulweis taught that too often, parents viewed their children as “naches producers.” When parents...

Rabbi Josef Davidson

Why Be Jewish? To strive for holy, meaningful lives

By Rabbi Josef DavidsonPublished May 9, 2019

It seems as though every Monday and Thursday someone is writing an article or a book in an attempt to answer the question, “Why be Jewish?” This speaks to the pressure to assimilate, on the one hand, and the desire to preserve Judaism and the Jewish...

 

Me, too? Sarah and Abraham, right and wrong

BY RABBI JOSEF A. DAVIDSONPublished October 18, 2018

A man goes on a business trip to a foreign country with his spouse. In preparation for this journey, he studies a bit about the culture, the people and the laws of the land. There is much to fear, though the reward of traveling there outweighs the fear....

Rabbi Josef Davidson

Serving others while suffering personal pain

BY RABBI JOSEF DAVIDSONPublished April 11, 2018

It was Tuesday, Sept. 23, 1997, when I received the call from my father that my beloved mother had finally succumbed to her metastatic lung cancer. At our congregation in Chattanooga, Tenn., I was deeply involved in preparations for the High Holy Days,...

Rabbi Josef Davidson speaks at a 2015 Hunger Seder held by the Jewish Community Relations Council. 

B’nai Amoona salutes Rabbi Josef Davidson

By Eric Berger, Staff WriterPublished June 8, 2017

Rabbi Josef Davidson is more Jose Oquendo than Michael Jordan.Even though Davidson, like Jordan, came out of retirement, to become an assistant rabbi at Congregation B’nai Amoona, he says he did not do so to be the rabbi, but rather to serve as a “utility...

Rabbi Josef Davidson serves Congregation B’nai Amoona and is a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical Association.

Lifting the plague of darkness

By Rabbi Josef DavidsonPublished February 1, 2017

Growing up in Denver, one of my favorite places to visit was Cave of the Winds just outside Colorado Springs.Overcoming my claustrophobia, I found the stalactites and stalagmites fascinating, with their beautiful shapes and colors created from dripping...

Parashat Nitzavim: We are blessed with choices, if not control

By Rabbi Josef A. DavidsonPublished September 28, 2016

Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, is almost upon us.It is that time of year when we look back over the past year and wonder what the next 12 months will bring. Looking forward raises our awareness of how little it is over which we have any control. As the...

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

Holiness as personal responsibility

By Rabbi Josef A. DavidsonPublished May 4, 2016

In his most famous work, “The Dybbuk,” Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport, the Jewish Russian author who wrote under the pseudonym of S. Ansky, created a character named Rabbi Azriel, who taught the following with regard to the holy confluence of time, person,...

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...

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