Rabbi Audrey Marcus Berkman 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, certainly …
Written by a grade 6 ARS student, as inspired by Rabbi Daniel Schaefer’s sermon on Friday night, 10/19/2018 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. …
Rabbi Daniel Schaefer 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 different places from which Abram is to go forth? Wouldn’t mentioning …
Linda Puretz & Susan Zeiger 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 fairly, with dignity …
Amy Deutsch 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 year we choose a theme that’s our rallying cry—our vision, our mission, and our …
Rabbi Audrey Marcus Berkman 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 for many different products that had comfort as their common theme. It started with new kinds of mattresses that would stream across my facebook feed …
Rabbi Audrey Marcus Berkman BUILDING ON BROKENNESS: THE HOLINESS OF WHOLENESS 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 blessed” – and sometimes we’re the …
Rabbi Daniel Schaefer 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, against a rising star, Naomi Osaka. Osaka won a stunning upset, but unfortunately, it was not her …
Rabbi Audrey Marcus Berkman SHEMA!: HEARING AND SHARING OUR STORIES TO BUILD A STRONGER COMMUNITY AND A BETTER WORLD There is so much that is beautiful in this space, under this dome — coming to this sanctuary and taking in the grandeur of the architecture, the gravitas of the day, the melodies that …
