Rabbi Nathan's blog

After the dramatic story of the Exodus from Egypt and the receiving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai, the Torah portions in the latter part of the book of Exodus cover a tremendous amount of details concerning the material requirements for designing and building the desert Tabernacle, the mobile sanctuary that accompanied the Israelites on their wilderness journeys.

One of the takeaways from this description is simply the...Read more...

Friends, we begin January by also beginning the book of Exodus, the core story of liberation that animates us as a Jewish people. It is a story we refer to every day in our daily prayer when we sing the “Mi Kamocha.”

As we cope with the Hamas attack of October 7, and the ensuing Gaza war and its repercussions around the world, I have been wondering about what the spiritual teachings are that we can glean from our liberation story...Read more...

Dear Friends,

Like many of you I have been heartbroken of the horrific murders carried out by Hamas militants against Israelis, the taking of hostages, and also the loss of civilian lives in Gaza during this conflict. Know that we are with you and we do our best to hold and grieve the loss together and also pray for a quick resolution to this conflict with a minimum of loss of life.

As American Jews, we are deeply affected by...Read more...

There is an interesting energy around the observance of Rosh Hashanah. One the one hand this is clearly a moment of solemnity, of “Yom Ha-Din,” the Day of Judgment, where we find ourselves at the beginning of the aseret yemei teshuva, the ten days of repentance, when we recommit to the work of healing rifts in our relationships and becoming our better selves.

Relatedly, Rosh Hashanah, is also historically understood as a divine...Read more...

Friends, at our community seder this year right before we counted the Omer, the period that marks our transition from the liberation of Pesah to the receiving of Torah on Shavuot, I asked each participant to consider one piece of learning they wanted to take on in the next 49 days, a way of learning Torah to be ready to receive Torah. I also offer this as a blessing to you all and invite you to consider taking on a practice or learning a new...Read more...