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 10, 2024
I was raised on Israel. My parents held Israel Emergency campaigns in our living room. My first trips overseas with my family were to Israel, traveling on many “Family Missions'' with the United Jewish Appeal. I remember fighting jet lag to stay alert as the guides revealed the secrets of ancient buildings, gushing springs, towering mountains, newly planted forests. I spent ten summers at a Reform movement overnight camp run by a proud Israeli, serving alongside Israeli co-counselors and infusing programing with modern Israeli experiences. Our sports coaches came from Israel’s premier Wingate Institute for Sports Excellence. Even Tisha B’Av became a day for remembering modern Israel’s traumas as much as the traditional lamentations. As parents, my wife (whose Israel experiences paralleled mine and has devoted a 35 year career to Israel and the Jewish community) and I sought to convey the same Israel diet to our children. Our [...]
Daily Kavanah – Friday, June 7, 2024
For more than 25 years, the Tel Aviv Pride Parade has brought together people from all over the world in a demonstration of tolerance and shared humanity unique in the Middle East. Last year, more than 200,000 people participated; since 2019, Tel Aviv Pride has been the largest in AsiaBecause of the war, and the almost singular focus of Israeli citizens on bringing the hostages home, the organizers of Tel Aviv Pride decided to cancel this year’s parade--but they did not cancel Pride. In a beautiful fashion, Tel Aviv found a way to demonstrate its ongoing commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion even in this painful time. Last night the city held a “Pride and Hope Assembly'' with a focus on remembering those murdered on October 7, as well as all those who have fallen since. It also included an opportunity to offer prayers for those still held in captivity in Gaza. A [...]
Daily Kavanah – Thursday, June 6, 2024
הוֹד֣וּ לַיהֹוָ֣ה כִּי־ט֑וֹב כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃Praise God, for God is goodness. God’s steadfast love is everlasting(Psalm 118:1)Early next week, we will chant Hallel–psalms of praise–as we celebrate the holiday of Shavuot, when we commemorate Moses receiving the Torah from God at Mt. Sinai. I love this idea of God gifting our ancestors with Torah, and I cherish bringing the wisdom of our tradition into our daily lives, as well as embracing the blessing and the responsibility of passing it down to the next generation. And I know for some of us, such a literal understanding is not as connective, and our Shavuot observance can embrace that outlook. We can celebrate Torah in the broader sense, embracing the wisdom of our texts and traditions, the Jewish learning and knowledge passed down for thousands of years, the words and pages that bind our people together even in our varying views and disagreements. I [...]
Daily Kavanah – Wednesday, June 5, 2024
אִֽם־אֶשְׁכָּחֵ֥ךְ יְֽרוּשָׁלָ֗͏ִם תִּשְׁכַּ֥ח יְמִינִֽי׃If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill (Psalm 137:5).Today is Yom Yerushalayim, one of the four contemporary Jewish holidays (in addition to Yom HaShoa, Yom HaZikaron, and Yom Ha’Atzmaut). Today, we celebrate the anniversary of the liberation and unification of the city of Jerusalem after almost two thousand years without Jewish sovereignty in our holiest city. Today is the day for gratitude for the generation that made this unification possible, and perhaps more importantly, for us to dream of how even the smallest of ways can help the efforts to keep the peace we dream about in our sacred Jerusalem and throughout our Homeland.Jerusalem is my favorite city in the entire world. My husband and I shared our first date in an adorable restaurant called Tmol Shilshom, a sweet spot with book-covered walls tucked away on a windy street off the main roads of the [...]
Daily Kavanah – Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Last Thursday, Rabbi Yoshi and I led our last weekday morning service of the year with the fifth and sixth graders in Wise School. Since all of the students already participated as klei kodesh (service leaders) and/or darshan (Torah teacher), Rabbi and I opened up the time after prayer for the students to ask questions. Some of them were silly, some of them were serious, and many of them had questions about the symbolism of numbers in our tradition, perhaps in an attempt to connect their Jewish and secular studies and also as a means of finding symmetry and balance at the end of a long, creative, and—certainly at times—exhausting semester. It was fun to explore their questions and comforting to reassure them about the beauty and meaning behind numbers as they appear in our texts and rituals. After this discussion and throughout my entire weekend, I took special notice of the numbers that [...]