Jewish Voices, Jewish Lives

It’s what we do every day. Whether it’s the food we favor…a bagel with shmear… or the drive to repair the world…tikkun olam, we Jews are there, especially in Rockland County. We plan to bring Doing Jewish to you every Friday. Sometimes it’ll be fun, sometimes it’ll be serious.

Resilience

A few days ago, I heard a beautiful interpretation of the well known words in Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) that we read this past Shabbat. 

 

A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven:

A time for being born and a time for dying,

A time for planting and a time f…

We’re Wide Awake Now

This past Monday, almost 1500 members of our community participated in our October 7th commemoration at Clover Stadium. One of the most powerful elements of the program was the reading by Hillel Rockland student leaders of a poem that touches on the emotions we’ve all been feeling since Oc…

Be There for Your Family

Sometimes we have an opportunity to demonstrate our love and solidarity and we maybe think - someone else will show up. There will be lots of people there. I don’t have to go. We tell ourselves that we are less needed, less important to a cause, less involved.

It’s not true. You are inv…

Beep Beep…

There is a passage in the 24th chapter of Mishlei, or Proverbs, that reads “Do not rejoice at the discomfiture of your enemies, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the LORD see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him.” Often enough the ‘proverbial’ ad…

The Great Debate

You probably think from the title that this message will focus on the debate between former President Trump and Vice President Harris that took place earlier this week. I’m sorry to disappoint you.

No, the great debate I had in mind is the distinction between sweet and savory. In most pl…