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 25, 2024
I am not sure if it counts as a guilty pleasure, but I really love the Normal Gossip podcast hosted by Kelsey McKinney. According to its description: Normal Gossip delivers juicy, strange, funny, and utterly banal gossip about people you’ll never know and never meet. Host Kelsey McKinney discusses reader-submitted comedic gossip with guests, diving into the lives and decisions of complete strangers. Not gossip in the way we usually think of it, the podcast is actually a master class in storytelling. McKinney brings us into family dynamics, friendships, and romantic relationships with wit and curiosity – and never meanness. According to pop culture site Vulture, “The idea for Normal Gossip first percolated during the pandemic, when the physical separation from others caused McKinney to feel the stinging absence of mundane gossip that doesn’t involve, say, a celebrity. Additionally, one listener commented that “It really makes you more aware of the fact that gossip [...]
Daily Kavanah – Monday, June 24, 2024
One of the things I found most fascinating–and enjoyable–about my Ulpan experience was the diversity of participants. Our Zoom spanned time zones from Los Angeles to Ottawa to Brooklyn to the Czech Republic to Israel. Participants were secular Americans of Israeli parents, new(ish) olim to Israel–and even a formerly ultra-Orthodox woman who lived her first 19 years in Jerusalem without learning Hebrew! I loved learning why each person was there, and I also loved the Hebrew knowledge that each person brought. Each of them knew different vocabulary, learned of their different experiences. For example, I headed off to Jerusalem over 20 years ago, and quickly realized that while I could conjugate complex verbs and translate an arcane Biblical sentence, ordering an extra plate in a restaurant was a real challenge! And while my modern Hebrew has improved a ton since I started rabbinical school, during Ulpan I was frequently reminded of [...]
Daily Kavanah – Friday, June 21, 2024
One of my favorite poems was written by Hannah Senesh in 1942. It’s commonly known as “Eli, Eli” but she titled it, “Halicha l’Kesarea”. The poem, it seems, was inspired by a walk Senesh took from her Kibbutz, S’dot Yam, to the ancient city of Caesarea. Senesh reflects on the beauty of nature which she encounters on the way: My God That these things should never end The sand and the sea The rush of the waters The crash of the heavens Humanity’s prayer. אלי שלא יגמר לעולם החול והים רשרוש של המים ברק השמיים תפילת האדם The poem is itself a prayer, one made all the more poignant by its historical setting. Senesh wrote it only two years before she would bravely parachute into what was then Yugoslavia in an effort to save Jews who were being murdered by the Nazis. She was captured shortly after she crossed into [...]
Daily Kavanah – Thursday, June 20, 2024
Today is the summer solstice, which marks the highest tilt of the Earth’s northern pole toward the sun, making it the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Though the solstice represents a day of significance across many religious and ethnic traditions, it bears little import in Judaism, which is based upon a lunar calendar. Nevertheless, the sages were aware of the solstice, and, ironically, feature it in a tale regarding Jewish mysticism: “As Rabbi Joshua walked beside Rabbi Yosi HaKohen along the road, they said, ‘Let us, like our esteemed colleagues, discuss the Work of the Chariot [referring to the mystical inferences from the descriptions of God’s chariot found in Ezekiel 1 and elsewhere]. Rabbi Joshua began to expound. This was the day of the summer solstice. And [though the day of the solstice rarely contained clouds], the heavens filled with clouds, with something like a [...]
Daily Kavanah – Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Today, our nation celebrates Juneteenth National Independence Day in commemoration of the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas on June 19, 1865 -- freeing the last remaining slaves in the Confederacy. Lincoln first issued the final version of the proclamation on January 1, 1863, but the American Civil War prevented immediate implementation of the proclamation within territories still under Confederacy control. Even General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, failed to dislodge slaveholders in Texas. These slaveholders did not comply with the law until the arrival of Major General Gordon Granger and his 2,000 federal soldiers in Galveston. One year later, those who were freed organized the first annual “Jubilee Day,” now known as Juneteenth. In 2021, it became a federal holiday. The slaveholders’ stubborn resistance against the Emancipation Proclamation, even once Union victory appeared a fait accompli, should not be altogether surprising. Nearly [...]