Rosh Hashanah 2019 This is the sermon I delivered on Rosh Hashanah at the Jewish Collaborative of Orange County. People asked to read it - so here it is: Rabbi Alan Lew, of blessed memory, writes that the High Holy Days season promises nothing less than total personal transformation - IF we do the work, and pay attention. Each of us should leave Continue Reading
Day Four: Journey of the Soul: Making the Omer Count
DAY FOUR* Welcome to the fourth day of the journey. We continue with this week’s kavannah (intention), which is Waking Up. (Journey of the Soul: Making the Omer Count is a project of Rabbi Jill Zimmerman and Rabbi Cindy Enger. To subscribe and receive each Omer day in your email, please click here.) We want to acknowledge that each of us enters Continue Reading
Mindfulness, Poetry, Prayer and Song to Open Hearts
At our beautiful all-day retreat last Shabbat, "A Mindful Journey Through Shabbat" we did a morning of chant/kavannah/music/silence. As leaders, we chose several key prayers (only a few) from the morning Shabbat service and went deeper into each one. For example, we started with Modah/Modeh Ani, which means "Grateful/Thankful am I" and offered a brief Continue Reading
Mary Oliver on Awe
Instructions for life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. Mary Oliver (from her poem "Sometimes") This photo was taken on a walk around our neighborhood in Mar Vista (Los Angeles) - You can just be walking, and come upon such beauty! Click on the photo to really see how amazing this flower is! (for more beautiful up-close photography Continue Reading
