Dear Friends: Since next Friday, April 3, is the second day of Pesach, I won’t be posting a “Rabbi’s Update” that day. In the class I am teaching on Pirkei Avot, we have been looking at materials which deal with how judges and courts should conduct themselves. For example, a court should always consist of three judges (because we learn and understand best through discussion with others who may see something that we miss, and so that there not be a tie when the judges come to

Dear Friends: There is a famous Israeli saying מה שרואים מכאן לא רואים משם ( mah she-roeem mi-kan lo roeem mi-sham, “what is seen from here is not what is seen from there”) which might be considered the Israeli version of “where you stand depends on where you sit.”  Through the miracle of the Internet and of cellphone apps, I listen to the Israeli radio station Reshet Gimmel most Friday mornings. Reshet Gimmel calls itself “the home of Israeli music” and on Friday mornings he

Dear Friends: As you surely know, yet another synagogue attack took place yesterday in West Bloomfield, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Temple Israel, the site of the attack, states that it is the largest Reform synagogue in the United States.  Fortunately, the only person who was killed was the attacker, a naturalized American citizen originally from Lebanon, who drove his truck through the doors, into the building, and down a hall. A fire started in the building -- news repo

Dear Friends: Our Purim celebration this past Monday night, which unexpectedly took place with both the United States and Israel at war with Iran (aka ancient Persia) was nevertheless lovely and well-attended. Thanks to Hazzan Komrad, Michael Sheib, and Jacob Sheib who chanted from the Megillah along with me; to Tom and Linda Loggie for refreshments after services; and to Linda Loggie and Wendy Schneider-Levinson for baking hamantashen. If I have omitted anyone, please accept

Dear Friends: The holiday of Purim is this coming Monday night and Tuesday. Hazzan Komrad and I will be leading our service and celebration in the Sanctuary beginning at 7 pm. The service will be on Zoom as well but of course if you can make it in person you are encouraged to do so. Please enter via the wooden Sanctuary doors rather than the glass doors by the office. Security will be present so please either bring your blue laminated Kehilat Shalom member card or remember th

Dear Friends: My grandfather, after whom I was named, was literally Hymie from Hymietown. When he was born in Ilya, Belarus, he was given the name Chaim Leib, but when his family came to the United States his first name was Anglicized to “Hyman” and he was known by the nickname “Hymie.” And like many Jewish immigrants of that era (he came to the United States in 1910 at age 17) he lived from his arrival in the US until his death in New York City -- which is also where he is b

Dear Friends: Item: On Tuesday morning of this week, antisemitic graffiti was discovered at Shaare Tefila synagogue in Olney. The main sign of the shul was spray painted with a swastika and “AZAB.” Two other signs, one expressing support for Israel and one which says “Hate Has No Home Here” (the same sign I have in front of my house) were also spray painted with “AZAB.”  “AZAB” reportedly stands for “All Zionists Are Bastards.” Remember that a synagogue was vandalized with th

Dear Friends: Tomorrow morning we read Parashat Yitro which contains, among other things, the revelation at Sinai. Over the years Keleigh and I have often, though not always, sponsored a kiddush on the Shabbat of Parashat Yitro because it was not only my Bar Mitzvah reading but my father’s as well. I discovered a few years ago that in an interesting quirk of the relationship between the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars, my father’s birthday is exactly a week earlier than mine o

Dear Friends: News Flash: it’s cold. Really cold, Really, really cold -- water pipes bursting cold, frost bite-inducing cold. Having said that, some years ago Keleigh and I spent a few days in Saskatoon, Canada, where it is routinely this cold or colder. A number of Saskatooners said to us: “there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.” Last Shabbat we held services on Zoom only. This Shabbat we are going back to our usual hybrid format and the Sanctuary will be

Dear Friends: The Conservative Movement made news in recent weeks with the report of the “Joint Intermarriage Working Group” -- “joint” because it had members from the Rabbinical Assembly, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and the Cantors’ Assembly. You can read the report here.  The Executive Summary of the report is here. The report can appear self-contradictory in that it on the one hand maintains the ban on Conservative rabbis and cantors officiating at marria

Dear Friends: There have been two significant antisemitic acts of vandalism against synagogues this past week. Early Shabbat morning, arson caused considerable damage to Beth Israel Congregation’s building in Jackson, Mississippi. The temple’s library and administrative offices were left as charred ruins, two Torah scrolls were destroyed and five more damaged by smoke and water. Beth Israel is the only synagogue in Jackson, the state’s largest city, and was founded in 1860. I

Dear Friends: This week we begin reading Sefer Shemot , the Book of Exodus. The story of the Exodus is the beginning of our people’s foundational story, but it has also inspired people throughout history and in many places to resist the Pharaohs of their era. The first act of resistance in Exodus was that of the midwives, Shifra and Puah, who had the courage to defy Pharaoh’s immoral decree even though it was the law of the land. If they had complied, if they had thrown up th

Dear Friends: I did not teach our Thursday night Adult Education last night or the week before, which were January 1 and December 25, respectively. At some point during the past week I was asked if there would have been a halachic problem with holding our Adult Education class on December 25. I understood this to be a question asked out of curiosity and a sincere desire to learn and not as a challenge in any way. To be sure there is no halachic issue of holding Torah study cl

Dear Friends: Tomorrow morning I will discuss three different contemporary sources that deal with the question of why Chanukah is eight days. Your automatic response to that question will probably be “because the flask that had enough oil for one day lasted eight” but if there was enough oil for one day, the first day was not really miraculous. Only the next seven days were the product of a miracle and therefore the holiday should really only be seven days. Rabbi Laura Geller

Dear Friends: Chanukah is supposed to be a joyous festival but we began Chanukah with so much sadness. In Bondi, Australia (suburban Sydney) two assailants opened fire on a public Chanukah celebration. At least 15 people were killed and dozens more injured. Among those murdered were two Chabad rabbis, a ten year old girl, a Holocaust survivor, and a 27 year old French Jewish IT administrator living and working temporarily in the Sydney area. The Sydney massacre was the worst

Dear Friends: Is it strange that every year as it gets colder I look forward to the release of Starbucks’ “Holiday Blend”, which is one of my favorite coffees? The first Starbucks on the East Coast opened in March 1993 on Wisconsin Ave. NW in Washington, DC, near the National Cathedral. At the time I was the Hillel Director at American University and lived just off Connecticut Ave. in Cleveland Park. If I drove to work, this Starbucks  was on my route, and it had a parking lo

Dear Friends: If you said Ma’ariv (the evening prayer) last night, you should have noticed that starting last night and through Pesach we make a slight change in the ninth blessing of the Amidah, Birkat Ha-Shanim (the blessing of the years). Starting the evening of December 4, or December 5 in a Hebrew year divisible by 4, instead of asking God to grant  b’racha  (blessing), we ask God to send tal u’matar livracha (dew and rain for blessing). As some of our congregants notice

Dear Friends: Tomorrow marks the fourth yahrzeit of my father Elliott Arian z”l. I’ve written before about the last coherent conversation I had with him. For the last few weeks of his life he wasn’t able to talk so this conversation was some time in September, 2021. He was very upset because he had been watching coverage of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the people who had worked with the Americans desperately trying to get onto American planes leaving Kabul, even try

Dear Friends: Some notes on a few different subjects: This Shabbat we will say farewell to Stu and Janet Rutchik.  Stu has served in many different roles including two terms as synagogue president and has been a frequent Haftarah chanter. Janet has also served in many different positions on the board and in Sisterhood. The Rutchiks have been members of Kehilat Shalom for about 35 years and they will be sorely missed but we understand their desire to live closer to their grand

Dear Friends: On Tuesday, as you certainly know, Zohran Mamdani was elected as Mayor of New York City, with 50.4 percent of the vote. Prior to the election a lot of pressure had been placed on Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa to drop out in favor of ex-governor and independent candidate Andrew Cuomo due to fears that they would split the vote and let Mamdani win with a plurality, but as it turned out he won a bare majority. I spent the first eight years of my life in New York