Over the past few weeks, our community shared multiple occasions when our children led us in prayer. Singing has always been my main pathway to prayer, but listening to our learned children skillfully lead us in worship has become equally as connective for me. From the beautiful Passover performance by our third graders (including an unparalleled Israeli rendition of “Am Yisrael Chai”) to hearing our elementary students and teens teach and chant Torah at our Passover morning service, to the extraordinary leading of the Four Questions at our community Second Night Seder, the youth of our Wise community are skilled in song. It is an absolute privilege and joy to listen to them lead our community in prayer and to learn from them. I don’t for one minute take for granted the benefit of being able to connect to prayer. These past almost seven months have been a living [...]

Today marks the eighth and final day of Passover. In Israel and in most Reform communities, many Jews only observe seven days of the festival. Interestingly enough, the year I lived in Israel, Passover ended on Friday evening, so everyone spent an additional day observing the holiday simply because we couldn’t purchase any chametz until the end of Shabbat! Whatever your minhag (practice), however many days you observe, I hope that it was a beautiful holiday filled with enriching seders, conversation, company, and reflection. Today is also the seventh day of the counting of the Omer, the seven week period between Passover and Shavuot. Each week represents one spiritual quality and each day is also assigned its own divine characteristic. As we wrap up this first week of counting, which is associated with חֶסֶד chesed (goodness or kindness), this seventh day is מַלְכוּת malchut (majesty). To me, this day represents the highest and richest kindness [...]