Daily Kavanot
Writings of reflection by the Stephen Wise Temple clergy.
Each weekday morning, members of our mailing list receive the “Daily Kavanah,” which includes messages of thought, inspiration, and contemplation from our clergy, along with a schedule of events. Every Thursday, the “Daily Kavanah” turns into “Eyes on Wise,” our weekly newsletter featuring the latest news, photos, videos, stories, and tikkun olam opportunities from our community. Sign up and don’t miss out!
Daily Kavanah – Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Continuing from yesterday, it was one week ago that—early in the Jerusalem morning—I made my way to the Kotel, ready to welcome the new month of Tammuz with Women of the Wall. For those who do not know, Women of the Wall has been fighting for over 30 years—on the ground and in the courts—for women to have the right to wear prayer shawls, pray, and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall. Though there is now an egalitarian section at the Kotel where families can pray together (Ezrat Yisrael), it is located at an isolated southern section of the Wall, where falling stones in recent years have blocked direct access to the Wall’s stones. Women of the Wall, which spans the religious spectrum, aims to create a prayer experience only for women, at the Kotel itself. The opposition to the group is fierce, and [...]
Daily Kavanah – Monday, June 26, 2023
Exactly one week ago, our rented Kia—struggling a bit, I’ll admit—climbed the Jerusalem hills as we made our ascent into the city. While investment in infrastructure over the last two decades means that arrival is a bit less dramatic—we could no longer see the Old City walls appearing between the modern buildings—my umpteenth arrival feels no less miraculous to me than my first. And, of course, to bring my children to this city was even more emotional than I expected, though it is possible that if you ask them, the ice cream and time with friends might stick with them as much as seeing the Kotel for the first time. Our wonderful tour guide, a dear friend of many friends, started our day in the Old City with words from Psalms. Standing inside the Jaffa Gate, just up the stairs from the luxury mall of Mamilla, she and my children [...]
Daily Kavanah – Shabbat Message From Rabbi Yoshi – Friday, June 23, 2023
There are songs that we remember from particular moments in our lives that have special meaning. Since I was in high school, I've been an admirer of the music of Peter Gabriel. His album, Us, was released when I was in rabbinical school in 1992 and I remember hearing some of the songs for the first time on Israeli radio while I was running in Gan Sachar in Jerusalem. The other night, I saw Gabriel in concert. As it happens, it was almost exactly 30 years ago that I last heard him play live when he was touring with that same album. This time, one of the songs from Us had special resonance for me. As Gabriel, now 73 years old and still in fine voice, sang the chorus to his song "Digging in the Dirt," I felt a deep connection between the music I was experiencing and this week's [...]
Daily Kavanah – Thursday, June 22, 2023
Last week's Shabbat was filled with joyful celebrations: a wedding blessing, a baby naming, a bar mitzvah, lots of children present and eager to open our ark, and the installation of our new Board. At the end of the service, we closed with a setting of Debbie Friedman's T'filat HaDerech, a blessing that we recite any time we embark on a journey or any time we enter a new chapter in our lives. We ask to be blessed as we go on our way and to be guided by God's peace in whatever the next chapter may hold. A traveler's prayer was originally discussed in Talmut B'rachot and has been included in many variations in our siddurim (prayer books) for centuries. Now that it is summer, so many of us plan to or have already embarked on journeys: starting new sessions at camp, enjoying a new chapter at work [...]
Daily Kavanah – Wednesday, June 21, 2023
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר׃ "And God said, let there be light! And there was light." —Genesis 1:3 Comic books are illuminating, a truly unique way to capture a story. When I was a little girl, I read newspaper comics on my dad's lap while eating our cereal together in the morning. A few years later, I experienced the joy of being invited into my big brother's world when he realized I was old enough to take interest in the characters and stories that he explored in his imagination through the comic books he loved. When you visit my office, you see near my much cherished cantorial ordination and master's degree a sweetly framed comic about the Black Canary, a superheroine in American comics (created by Jewish writer Robert Kanigher). Black Canary, whose alter ego is Dinah Drake (Jewish, of course) has a vocal superpower: Her sonic scream can incapacitate [...]