Making God More Than a Footnote
Dec 3, 2005 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Toledot
The process of seeking God within Judaism is one that is done through patience and mindfulness.
Read More
Lacking Praise
Sep 16, 2004 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah
Hallel, the compilation of psalms recited on Jewish festivals and observances throughout the year, is the quintessential expression of joy.
Read More
The Comfort of Prayer
Aug 8, 2014 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Va'et-hannan
Parashat Va’et-hannan contains some of the most inspiring and sweepingly grand passages in the entire Torah, and some of the best known, including the Ten Commandments and the first paragraph of the Shema.
Read More
Shema’: The “Secrets” of the Eyes
Jun 6, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Much of our liturgy and liturgical experience is verbal and analytic, based upon precisely what words we say and the meaning(s) found and embedded in those words. In these essays, we have also looked extensively at the way in which music, melody, and vocal quality add levels of meaning and experience. However, we are not disembodied minds and souls, and there are more than a few occasions when the disposition of the body is engaged to greater or lesser extent in the experience of liturgy. Most dramatically, we might think of the prostrations on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but even in the daily experience, we think naturally of standing for the ‘Amidah, among many other customs and practices.
Read More
Mah Nishtanah . . . A Seder for Yom Ha’atzma’ut
May 16, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Yom Hazikaron-Yom Ha'atzma'ut
In recent weeks, Medinat Israel (the State of Israel) was celebrated by citizens, residents, and the worldwide Jewish community with an array of observances for Yom Ha’atzma’ut (Israel Independence Day). In synagogues of the Conservative/Masorti Movement, morning minyan included the Hallel prayer and a special Torah reading, affirming the understanding that the establishment of Israel is not merely an item in the political history of the mid-20th century, but a vital step in the spiritual story of our people and, perhaps, the world. The “Prayer for the State of Israel,” included in the Shabbat morning service in almost all synagogues, speaks of Israel as “reishit tzemichat ge’ulateinu” (the beginning of the flowering of our redemption).“Redemption,” here, must be understood as the Messianic Era of universal peace and understanding.
Read More
Slivers of Memory (Yom Ha-sho’ah V’-ha-gevurah)
May 2, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Yom Hashoah
Several decades ago, many ceremonies commemorating the Shoah attempted to tell the entirety of the story, with numbers that defied comprehension and broad-sweeping trends of history that submerged the experience of individuals in the story of a world run amok. In more recent years, I have observed that the experience and testimonies of individuals have become more prominent, perhaps serving as holographic slivers that represent the wider context. As survivors of the Holocaust are fewer in number each year, we turn to the writings, art, songs, and recordings born out of those years.
Read More
Shema’ (Part 1)—What We Know and What We Don’t
Apr 25, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
Ask almost any group of Jews to identify the most important Jewish “prayer” of all, and at the top of the list will almost certainly be the Shema’. Technically, it is not a prayer, for it is not addressed to God, but to the community of Israel. But that is a technical quibble, so (for now) let it pass. Traditionally, we say the Shema’ twice each day within the formal liturgy, and also just before going to sleep.
Read More
The Song of Songs: Lovers Absent and Present
Apr 18, 2014 By Samuel Barth | Commentary
This Shabbat, Hol Hamo’ed Pesah, we read Shir Hashirim, the Song of Songs, the provocative and enigmatic cycle of lusty love poetry that is embraced (though not without challenge) by the canon of the Hebrew Bible. Dr. Francis Landy of Calgary University wrote a powerful and lyrical treatise on the Song of Songs entitled Paradoxes of Paradise, which opens with the reflection of Rabbi Akiva—“All the Scriptures are kedoshim, holy, but Shir Hashirim kodesh kodashim, the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies”—radically deploying the term otherwise used to describe the holiest place in the Temple.
Read More
