“Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time, to be attached to sacred events, to learn how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year. The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals…” — Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel I don’t know about you but for me these days of social distancing, working and learning (and teaching) from home have already begun to distort my sense of time. I spent a good deal of Thursday thinking it was Wednesday. But tonight will feel different and I won’t be at all confused about what day it is. When we gather to light candles with our family (or join in our communal Zoom candle lighting), when we join together virtually for Friday night services at 6:15 p.m., when we sit with family (or connect with others virtually during our meal), we will know that Shabbat has finally arrived. May we find [...]

The proverb, “Every cloud has a silver lining,” is taken from a poem written by John Milton in 1634. In it, the great English poet and author of Paradise Lost, writes: “Was I deceived, or did a sable [black] cloud/Turn forth her silver lining on the night?” Milton knew about dark clouds. During his lifetime, he witnessed the horrors of civil war and suffered great personal losses, including the early death of his wife. We, too, know about dark clouds. We, too, collectively and personally, understand how challenging life can be. And we, too, know about silver linings. Here’s one I experienced just yesterday: stuck at home, Jacqueline and I played board games with our daughters late into the evening. We found comfort, joy, and even laughter in this dark moment for our nation and our world. Every cloud has a silver lining. Can you find it? Can you see [...]

There is so much, all around, that brings us hope. We are reminded in the face of this crisis that we are not alone, that friends and loved ones are there for us. We find strength in the knowledge that doctors, care-givers, government officials, and scientists around the world are working together to save lives, to develop a vaccine, to find ways to treat this pandemic. And beyond friends, family, and others who might come to our aid, there is, of course, God. As the Psalmist declares: כִּי־אַתָּה תִקְוָתִי אֲדֹנָי Kee Atah tikvatee Adonai! YOU - O Eternal - are my hope! We are not alone. We have each other. And we have God, too. — Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback Rabbi Yoshi and a few of his classmates from rabbinical school are offering a weekly online Zoom class focused on texts from our tradition that will provide comfort and meaning during [...]

Today is the birthday of our beloved community’s namesake—Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise. He was born on March 17, 1874, in Budapest. He was a man of great faith, filled with hope in the future even during the darkest days of the Shoah. He wrote the following shortly before his death in 1949: “My unwavering faith that the Jewish State would be established was the legacy I had received forty years earlier from Herzl himself. I have often told of my last conversation with him in April, 1904 at the meeting of the Zionist Actions Committee, a few months before his death at the age of 44 on July 3. Herzl placed his arm around me and said, ‘I shall not live to see the Jewish State. But you, Wise, are a young man. You will live to see the Jewish State.’ I thank God that it was given to me [...]