The Hebrew month of Elul begins tomorrow. It’s a month of spiritual reflection and preparation culminating in Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. In honor of Elul I’ll be posting what I’m calling “30 essential questions for life.” Here are
Choosing Reform Judaism
Are you in the process of converting to Reform Judaism? Are you thinking about it? If so, I’d love to connect with you and hear your thoughts about this post. My wife, Rabbi Loren Filson Lapidus, and I love to
Ever-Living Word
The following was written in 1857 (in German) by one of the great intellectuals of the early Reform Movement, Abraham Geiger. Translation by Max Wiener: The Bible is now and has always been an ever-living Word, not a dead letter.
Sometimes I don’t have the Ruach
Previously, I mentioned the opening prayer that some of my Middle School Jewish Studies colleagues and I wrote and which our Middle School community recites at the beginning of our t’fila services x2-3/week. It starts, “All I have to offer
Making room for Shabbat
Behold our dining room table: Tonight we pushed back some of the stuff of daily life to make room for Shabbat. Hence our dining room table is 1/2 Shabbat and 1/2 the stuff of daily life.
Things I learned in Arkansas
I just got home from a wonderful weekend serving as an artist and scholar in residence at Congregation B’nai Israel in Little Rock, Arkansas. Here are some things I learned and/or was reminded about myself, Arkansas, and life in general.
Box of Rain Allegory
Yet another chapter in the Grateful Dead Passover genre… A few months back I had a chance to share the world-changingly beautiful tune, “Box of Rain” with a group of middle school students. In looking at the lyrics I asked
Grateful Passover
So I’m a not-so-secret Dead Head. Which means that every once in a while there’s a Grateful Dead lyric or tune that gets stuck in my head. Here’s an example… “Big boss man, can’t you hear me when I call?
As Passover approaches…
As a rabbi, I lament the fact that so many Jews feel that Judaism is a stuffy, boring, repetitive tradition. I lament (and sometimes even resent) this because it’s simply NOT true. It’s actually dead wrong. Jewish rituals, Jewish holiday
3 things too many Jewish people get wrong about Judaism
There’s a disconnect between Jews and Judaism. As a rabbi it’s frustrating because I know, for a fact, that the disconnect is based in part of some common misunderstandings that Jews have about Judaism. Here are a few… 1. Judaism encourages