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 – Monday, June 27, 2022
June 27 marks the observance of National Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Day, established in 2010 to pay tribute to U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Joel Biel of the North Dakota National Guard, who died by suicide in April of 2007, immediately following his second tour of duty in Iraq. Had he remained alive, today would have been Biel’s birthday. Though often associated with military service because of the severe trauma associated with conflict, PTSD may be caused by anything the mind processes as trauma, including the horrors of conflict, domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, natural disasters, automotive accidents, and more. Estimates suggest that more than 8 million Americans suffer from PTSD, with the vast majority suffering in silence. In our highly individualized society, which emphasizes personal responsibility and the dignity of privacy, it can be difficult to find safe, inviting arenas to tell our horrifying stories, let alone find [...]
Daily Kavanah – Friday, June 24, 2022
In this week’s Torah portion, parashat Sh’lach L’cha, a group of scouts are sent out to do some reconnaissance for the Jewish People, to see with their own eyes what the Promised Land looks like; to explore, in Moses’s words, “what kind of country it is. Are the people who dwell in it strong or weak, few or many? Is the land in which they dwell good or bad? Are the towns they live in open or fortified? Is the soil rich or poor? Is it wooded or not? And take pains to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (Numbers 13:18-20) Twelve spies go out and return with their findings. Ten of them offer a rather pessimistic report. They bring back—as instructed—some of the fruit, a cluster of grapes so gigantic that two men are required to carry it. But while they admit that the land indeed flows [...]
Daily Kavanah – Thursday, June 23, 2022
ON SUNS, MOONS, RAINBOWS, AND TWILIGHT. Each day as evening falls, our tradition calls upon us to offer a blessing, a prayer of gratitude to the One who speaks evening into being, who rolls light away from darkness and darkness from light. Poetic in itself, our prayer book offers a beautiful poem about this hour, this time which is not daytime and not yet evening. Bein hashamashot—between the two suns—our rabbis called it, and our Shabbat prayer book offers this: This is an hour of change, and within it, we stand quietly on the border of light. What lies before us? Shall we draw back … or cross over? It is a question for each of us about transition and change, and perhaps more deeply about freedom and liberation. When do we step forward, and when do we hold back? In the early hours of June 28, 1969, New York City [...]
Daily Kavanah – Wednesday, June 22, 2022
If yesterday, the Summer Solstice, is all about the sun, then this upcoming Shabbat is a reminder that—for the most part—our Jewish calendar lives by the moon. I spent Shavuot camping in Sycamore Canyon, noticing once again that it is our only harvest festival that does not take place under a full moon. Driving home last week, I was struck by the beautiful, low-hanging full moon, only to find out that it was actually a Strawberry Supermoon. And this Shabbat is one of the Shabbatot during the year known as Mevarchim Chodesh. The new month of Tammuz, and its new moon, begins the night of June 28. On the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh, the custom is to announce the day or days on which the new month will fall, and to pray that The Holy Blessed One renews it for us and all of Israel for goodness and blessing. According to tradition, the [...]
Daily Kavanah – Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Ein mazal l’Yisrael, our Talmud teaches—there is no constellation for Israel. Firmly rooted within Zoroastrian culture and its connection to astrology, the rabbis wanted to make a point that our belief system is not dependent on the stars and the planets, but rather on the Divine Creator of heaven and earth. This oft-quoted statement aside, though, the Talmud itself is full of allusions to and predictions based on the planets. Today is no exception. Today, we here in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate the Summer Solstice—the longest day of the calendar year. This astronomical phenomenon has been marked by cultures across the globe since prehistory, and there is almost no culture—from Christianity to the ancient Aztecs, from the Greeks to Shakespeare, and even our own Jewish tradition—that does not mark this day in some way or another. While there is no constellation for Israel, the days surrounding the Summer Solstice are [...]