The Day Is Short, but Our Story Is Long
Mar 14, 2025 By Yael Landman | Commentary | Ki Tissa | Purim
Within the book of Exodus, certain details link the golden calf story with the account of revelation at Sinai. Mount Sinai is the site of the Israelites forming a covenant with God, but it is also the site of them violating that covenant. It鈥檚 where God tells Moses to go up and receive the stone tablets, and where Moses carries down those tablets before he witnesses the Israelites partying and hurls the tablets to the ground. The word kol (which we might translate 鈥渟ound,鈥� 鈥渘oise,鈥� or 鈥渢hunder鈥�) recurs in the context of God鈥檚 revelation, only to recur in the account of the golden calf with respect to the Israelites鈥� ill-advised festivities. In these ways, the golden calf story is inextricably connected to the initial moment of revelation and lawgiving at Sinai, even as it threatens to destroy that covenantal foundation.
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The Masks of Doubt: Exploring Purim, Uncertainty, and the Hidden Divine
Mar 10, 2025 By Rabbi David Ingber | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Purim
Purim is a celebration of uncertainty鈥攁 holiday that invites us to embrace the hidden, the paradoxical, and the unknown. Join Romemu鈥檚鈥疪abbi David Ingber for a deep dive into the mystical themes of Purim, where doubt becomes a gateway to faith and masks reveal more profound truths. Together, we explore how the story of Purim reflects the concealment of the Divine, the role of chance and chaos in our lives, and the profound spiritual lessons that arise when we step into the space of not knowing. Discover how Purim challenges us to find meaning and connection amid mystery.
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Sacred Words in Liturgy and Life
Oct 11, 2024 By Shira Billet | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur
Human communication, the commitment to taking words seriously and to viewing the words we write and speak as serious commitments, has become even more imperiled in an age where our words are mediated through the technologies of social media, artificial intelligence, and the crippling social phenomena of political polarization and widespread mistrust.
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Crying With God
Oct 1, 2024 By Gordon Tucker | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah
In an essay some years ago, the Israeli teacher and poet Sara Friedland ben Arza asked us to focus on the prayer Hayom Harat Olam (Today the World Stands as at Birth) in the Rosh Hashanah liturgy. She asks why, in a religious tradition that moved away so notably from ancient mythological motifs, is there a rare reference to the 鈥渂irthing鈥� of the world? And why is that short prayer placed just after the shofar
is blown?
Shemini Atzeret, Rain, & Resurrection
Sep 23, 2024 By Mychal Springer | Public Event video | Video Lecture | Shemini Atzeret
In this session, we explore the unique themes of the Shemini Atzeret and hold them in dialogue with this moment of brokenness, the weight of war, the complexities of peoplehood, and the ongoing need for healing and rebirth.聽
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Shattering Our Idols
Sep 20, 2024 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Ki Tavo | Rosh Hashanah
Judaism tantalizes the senses with the sights, sounds and fragrant smells that characterize its observance. Rosh Hashanah is certainly one of those times when we are overwhelmed by the richness of Jewish symbolism. At the heart of our New Year observances, however, lies the piercing cry of the shofar. What is the meaning of the shofar?
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Hope Through Tears
Oct 4, 2024 By Joel Seltzer | Commentary | Rosh Hashanah
The haftarah for the second day of Rosh Hashanah echoes both the violence and the promise of the Akedah, the Binding of Isaac, as Israel is described as 鈥渢he people escaped from the sword鈥� (Jer. 31:2), while God promises, 鈥淭here is hope for your future鈥攜our children shall return to their country鈥� (31:17).
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Petition or Protest
Aug 30, 2024 By Adam Zagoria-Moffet | Commentary | Re'eh | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur
Our Sages saw Hannah as trying to trap God into offering blessing, and they interpreted the same from another unlikely context, one that also occurs during this month鈥檚 Torah readings. We read about the apparently bizarre mitzvah of聽shilu鈥檃h haken, the sending away of the mother bird.聽Deut. 22:6鈥�7聽is the sole description of this shockingly precise mitzvah: 鈥淚f you happen upon a bird鈥檚 nest while on the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, whether with chicks in it or still-unhatched eggs, and the mother bird is sitting on the eggs or chicks, you shall not take the mother with the young. Instead, chase away the mother bird and take the young鈥攊n order that you be well and your days long.鈥�
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