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 – Friday, February 9, 2024
Rabbi Yoshi and Jacqueline are leading a Stephen Wise Temple solidarity mission this week in Israel. Each day Rabbi Yoshi will share reflections on the visit. February 9, 2024 - 30 Shevat 5784 Today was about home. We started with a painful, heart wrenching visit to the site of the music festival where 364 Israelis were brutally murdered. There were many sexual atrocities committed there as well, largely ignored by the UN and rest of the world. This visit reminded me of the communities and homes we build through our passions and hobbies. The 3,000 plus people who came to the festival created this through their shared love of music, dance, and being together. As I walked through the memorial that has been built by their friends and loved ones, I couldn't help but feel a deep sense of home in this place with no physical structures, a place [...]
Daily Kavanah – Thursday, February 8, 2024
Rabbi Yoshi and Jacqueline are leading a Stephen Wise Temple solidarity mission this week in Israel. Each day Rabbi Yoshi will share reflections on the visit. February 8, 2024 - 29 Shevat 5784 Today we learned about resilience. We left our hotel early in the morning for our two-hour drive along the Gaza Strip to Talmei Yosef, a small agricultural community five miles from the border with Egypt, just opposite Khan Yunis. The first lesson was taught by Uri Alon who runs “The Salad Trail,” an educational experience about high-tech agriculture accompanied by opportunities to taste varieties of strawberries and tomatoes right off the vine. But in addition to these lessons, Uri taught us a lot about how one can face difficult situations with grace, determination, and courage. He told us his own October 7 story. He and his wife and grandchild were at their small farm alone when [...]
Daily Kavanah – Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Rabbi Yoshi and Jacqueline are leading a Stephen Wise Temple solidarity mission this week in Israel. Each day Rabbi Yoshi will share reflections on the visit. The Diameter of the Bomb By Yehudah Amichai (1924-2000) The diameter of the bomb was 30 centimeters and the diameter of its effective range about 7 meters, with four dead and 11 wounded. And around these, in a larger circle of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered and one graveyard. But the young woman who was buried in the city she came from, at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers, enlarges the circle considerably, and the solitary man mourning her death at the distant shores of a country far across the sea includes the entire world in the circle. And I won’t even mention the crying of orphans that reaches up to the throne of God and beyond, making a [...]
Daily Kavanah – Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Lately, I’ve been attempting to limit my nightly doomscrolling and overconsumption of Israel news by replacing my phone with something far superior: the volumes of Jewish books that adorn the bookshelves of our home. Last week, I re-read Primo Levi’s Survival In Auschwitz, a book I first read in high school when I likely did not fully understand its depth and meaning. Levi was a Jewish-Italian chemist who was arrested by Italian fascists in 1943 and deported to Auschwitz, where he survived ten months of systematic cruelty. While, of course, it is difficult to relive another painful chapter in our people’s history, Levi’s words frequently—and surprisingly —filled me with a remarkable sense of hope. He explains, in short, that while perfect happiness is unrealizable in a human life, perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable. A man who lived such a dehumanizing experience might be filled with hate and despair, but instead, Levi clung to [...]
Daily Kavanah – Monday, February 5, 2024
Shabbat ends each week when three stars appear in the sky on Saturday evening, but we are still permitted to say “ shavuah tov” or perform the havdalah ritual as late as sunset on Tuesday. Our tradition understands that during some weeks we might feel a hasty enthusiasm for the start of a fresh week and during others we might need a bit more time to jump into action with renewed energy. In Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Tarfon teaches us: “The day is short, the work formidable, the workers not always active, but the wages plentiful, and the Boss ever-insistent!” (Pirkei Avot 2:16). Rabbi Tarfon understands that each of us has a normal balance of apathy and inertia. During our most energized days, we remember that life is short and we pursue our purpose. On those days, we must ask ourselves “If not now, when?” and commit to the sacred work of [...]