Friday, March 29th 2024   |

Yom Kippur

Rav-Elations: Today We Stand…But Only Today

By RABBI DAVID GERBER

This week’s Torah portion holds significance not only for the present moment but also for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It commences with the profound words, “Atem Nitzavim hayom kulchem lifnei Adonai,” meaning, “You are all standing today before God.”

Even within these initial two words lies a message that offers guidance not just on Yom Kippur but throughout the entire...

Yom Kippur (Chosen People)

Person in the Parsha: Vayelech

By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

ONE VERSE, MANY LESSONS

He was one of the greatest Talmud scholars of the last century, but outside of a small circle of disciples, he was never well-known. He was a tragic figure in many ways, and although few have heard of him today, he has not been totally forgotten.

Interestingly, forgetting was one of the central themes of his many teachings.

His...

OU to host Torah Yerushalayim, a pre-Yom Kippur event

Leading rabbinic scholars, educators, and Jewish communal leaders will be featured at the Orthodox Union’s (OU) third annual Torah Yerushalayim on Sunday, September 12, 2021.

More than 3,000 men and women are expected join the virtual event, which is being hosted by OU Israel, the Israeli arm of the Orthodox Union (OU). The program will consist of five keynote addresses, 16 classes and two panels...

Off the Pulpit: Yom Kippur Connections

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE

When I was a child and left a school to move to another city, there was a good chance that I would not see my schoolmates again. There was no social media and everyone lived in their own city and their own world.

Now people can be in touch with almost everyone with whom they crossed paths. We are closer to the population of our own pasts...

OP-ED: We have good reasons to give ourselves credit this year. Here’s a positive viddui for Yom Kippur.

By RABBI JILLIAN CAMERON and CANTOR JUVAL PORAT

(JTA) — Every year during the High Holidays, Jews recite a litany of ways we have fallen short in a confessional prayer. Known as a viddui, the prayer is a centerpiece of our Yom Kippur liturgy.

This year, we again will reflect on our shortcomings. But one takeaway from the past year is that even when we do our best, it may...

Northshore Jewish Congregation to resume in-person visits next week; virtual opportunities listed

The Northshore Jewish Congregation (NJC), suffered only minor damages from Hurricane Ida last Sunday and Monday. However, at last report, it is still without power. 

In the interim, Anna Schwartz, the president of  Temple Adath Joseph in St. Louis, MO., has graciously offered to have the NJC congregation attend their services virtually.

Their Rosh Hashanah Schedule is a follows:

Monday, September 6...

OP-ED: Another year, another political lecture from the pulpit?

By REBECCA SUGAR

– Most non-Orthodox Jews in America, which represents the majority of American Jews, do not attend regular synagogue services. But they do show up in greater numbers once or twice a year during the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). Conservative and Reform rabbis carefully prepare their sermons each year knowing they will have the...

‘Ash keeps raining and the smoke is still thick’: How the Northern California fires affected an already disrupted Yom Kippur

By MAYA MIRSKY, DAN PINE and GABE STUTMAN 

(J. the Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Rabbi Stephanie Kramer and her family were at home when they got the call to evacuate as Kol Nidre was ending on Sunday evening.

“A very loud alert went off on all our phones,” said Kramer, senior associate rabbi of Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa, California, which had prerecorded the opening...

Bibi Shapiro, the 6-year-old whose ‘Avinu Malkeinu’ went viral, sang at Central Synagogue’s Yom Kippur services

By PHILISSA CRAMER

(JTA) — The first time 6-year-old Bibi Shapiro found out just how widely viewed the video of him singing “Avinu Malkeinu” had been, he was sitting on his mother’s lap in Australia being beamed into Yom Kippur services at one of the largest synagogues in the United States.

Like so many others who saw the video over the past several weeks, Angela Buchdahl, the senior rabbi of New...