TOS Blog

Dear Friends,

Across the country, many thousands of our Jewish sisters and brothers are experiencing the horror of having lost loved ones, homes, businesses, and several Jewish institutions including camps and a Jewish day school. (See this article for more information on the impact on the Jewish...Read more...

Dear TOS Community,

I am filled with gratitude for the many blessings of last Friday evening’s Installation, when we marked the official start...Read more...

My already-beloved community, cherished family, friends, colleagues: How very humbling to be called to the leadership of this kehilla kedoshah, this holy community, at this moment in history. It is not an easy moment - it is arguably the most challenging and shocking time for American Jews in many decades,...Read more...

Did you know that there are refugee families in Brookline that need our help? There is one that even goes to school here at TOS. I really want to help his family as they don’t have much. With the help of Rabbi Schaefer and Amy, we are having a spare change drive here at ARS starting next week.

This is so easy. Did you know...Read more...

This week’s Torah portion, Lech L'cha, begins with the famous words:

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ

God said to Abram, “Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house.”

Why does God specify three...Read more...

Here’s How the Jewish Community Can Help

Cherishing our friends and family in the LGBTQ community—and standing up for their safety and civil rights—is an expression of our caring and inclusive values at Ohabei Shalom. We want to ensure that all people in our community are treated...Read more...

At ARS, we approach curriculum through a variety of ways. There’s the Hebrew and Judaica curriculum that students examine in the classroom, the tefilah questions that help students dive into prayer and theology at our weekly service, and each...Read more...

ONE SOUL AT A TIME:

MENTAL HEALTH AND TIKKUN OLAM

YOM KIPPUR MORNING SERMON

A couple of years ago, I started noticing a tremendous upsurge in ads...Read more...

Sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug. If you use social media  -- sometimes you’re the ones posting carefully curated photos of our delicious meal, our adorable kids or grandkids, our phenomenal vacation - we are “hashtag...Read more...

FIRST DAY OF ROSH HASHANAH
INTRODUCTION TO THE HAFTARAH READING
(I Samuel 1:1-2:10)

Last weekend was the US Open’s Women’s Tennis Final, and it pitted perhaps the greatest tennis player of all time, Serena Williams,...Read more...

SHEMA!:

HEARING AND SHARING OUR STORIES TO

BUILD A STRONGER COMMUNITY AND A

BETTER WORLD

Read more...

Dear Friends,

As part of our strategic planning process, this past June the Board of Trustees unanimously voted to adopt Tikkun Olam, Caring and Inclusive Community and Jewish and General Education as Temple Ohabei Shalom’s core values. These values were identified through our strategic planning...Read more...

Last night at Selichot, we sang the words of Hashiveinu, reminding us that this is the season for...Read more...

It is said in a midrash that the gates of teshuvah (repentance/return) are always open....Read more...

The sound of the shofar is, it has been said, a kind of spiritual alarm clock. With the dawn of the Hebrew month of Elul, this primal sound, seeming to encompass the entire spectrum of human emotion and experience within it, calls us to mindfulness, to wakefulness, and asks us plaintively and...Read more...

The new moon this weekend begins the new month of Elul. By the time the moon has waxed and waned we’ll be arriving at Rosh Hashanah, the start of a new year. Elul is a time for preparing for the High Holy Days, of awakening ourselves to do the work of teshuvah.

A Midrash on the Song of...Read more...

Dear friends,

This is Lori Berry and Donna Rubenoff. We want to introduce ourselves as the co-leaders of the new temple-wide partnership that we launched in June with The...Read more...

The early Rabbis who codified the Oral Torah in the Mishnah and Talmud, made a distinction between religious obligations that were considered d’oraita (from the Torah) and d’rabbanan (from the rabbis). In this week’s Torah portion, Eikev, we read the source for...Read more...

Shabbat, as our sages understood, is a taste of the world as it should be – a pause from the busyness and noise of the day-to-day and a time to be...Read more...

Today, for the first time, our 175-year-old congregation marched as a community in Boston’s Pride Parade.

Shehechiyanu! It was such a wonderful celebration of life and love. From our truck, complete with a replica of our synagogue’s dome on top, we cheered, waved, and returned shouts of...Read more...

Invocation and Reflections:

Read more...

The origin of my name Ellen is derived from the Greek root ēlē meaning light or bright.  Perhaps that explains why I’ve always had an affinity for light.  Or more precisely, fire.  If you build a fire, I will be lost to it, mesmerized by the flames for hours.  So, it makes sense that of...Read more...

Dear TOS Community,

We are pleased to update you on our strategic planning and clergy search process.

Strategic Planning
On March 11th, we held our second community meeting. At this meeting, we examined our personal and congregational Jewish values. We then envisioned our community in the year 2023. Each table created a long list of...Read more...

On Tuesday we received a visit from two local women and a painting…and the painting stayed. Martha Pierce and Norrie Epstein were little girls at TOS. Their grandfather, Louis Epstein, was President of TOS and their grandmother, Martha Epstein, was the first woman Vice President of...Read more...

Hi Friends,

As we head into what is typically a quiet week for many in our community, we wanted to take this opportunity to share more about our Strategic Planning work – how it came about, why it’s important, and how it relates to previous planning initiatives.

As a community, there is so much we want to do. Strategic planning is an important tool...Read more...

Hi everyone,

Our strategic planning community meeting was a huge success, showing us the energy around this initiative and highlighting places where we need continued work. Please read below for updates on our clergy transition and strategic planning process.

Clergy Transition
The board continues to discuss our clergy needs and will soon determine...Read more...

Dear Friends,

We are thrilled that 165 of you shared your thoughts in our strategic planning survey! Please join us for the next step in the process. A community-wide meeting will be held on Sunday, January 28th at 2 pm. There will be childcare! There will be food! There will be lively conversation! We would love to see you there.

Three community...Read more...

Last week you received an email asking you to participate in a community-wide survey that will inform our strategic planning initiative. This process is truly a community-wide effort. We need to hear your voice! Please take 10 minutes to complete the survey before the deadline THIS THURSDAY! *

An Ohabei Shalom team has been established to work closely with our...Read more...