by Rachel Calmas 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 process, which included an online survey (165 …
Rabbi Daniel Schaefer Last night at Selichot, we sang the words of Hashiveinu, reminding us that this is the season for returning. Some of us are returning to school or work, some of us are returning to Greater Boston, and many of us are returning to Temple Ohabei Shalom. The High Holy Days are coming …
by Rabbi Audrey Marcus Berkman It is said in a midrash that the gates of teshuvah (repentance/return) are always open. During this month of Elul, however, we are called to attend to the repair and healing of ourselves and our relationships in a concentrated way. It is easy enough to avoid looking deeply at ourselves …
by Rabbi Audrey Marcus Berkman 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 …
by Rabbi Daniel Schaefer 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 …
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 Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO). GBIO works to coalesce, train, and organize the communities of Greater Boston across religious, racial, ethnic, class, and neighborhood lines for local social justice issues …
by Rabbi Daniel Schaefer 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 the one and only blessing, that according to the …
by Rabbi Audrey Berkman 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 present for ourselves and for one another; a time to bask in our blessings, focusing on the abundance of our …
by Rabbi Audrey Marcus Berkman 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 “Shabbat Shalom” while …
