Rabbi’s Message

Miriam’s Cup: Tu BiShvat’s Outer Shells and Hidden Sparks

The wisdom of Tu BiShvat is coming right when we need it, as we face another round of Covid restrictions, illness, financial strain, separation and concerns. Tu BiShvat (from the evening of January 16th through January 17th) is the New Year of the Trees. What started as a day for fruit-tree taxation in ancient Israel …

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Miriam’s Cup: Building Sabbatical Culture – DJC Learning and Practice for the Year Ahead

I’m part of a newly formed group called the Shmita Sisters (we will definitely need T-shirts!). We’re a group of creative Jewish women leaders and teachers in Toronto, meeting monthly to explore how we might live the biblical practices of Shmita/the Sabbatical year that arrives every seven years. And this year is a Shmita year. …

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Rosh Hashana Day Sermon 5782 – On Becoming Ownerless

So, imagine it – you’re sitting in your bathrobe, drinking your morning coffee and looking out your garden window. A cluster of people you’ve never seen before are sauntering in and out of your garden. As they fill bowls with figs and apples from your trees, they smile and wave at you. You feel the …

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The Revolution Will be Televised – Let’s Get Ready

We will be gathering on Zoom for High Holyday services again this year. Of course, I would rather be physically together – singing together, crowding side by side under outstretched tallitot on the bimah for the group aliyot, and hugging in the aisles. But spiritual practice is perpetually a practice of meeting reality with an …

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Miriam’s Cup: What’s the Blessing for the Covid Vaccine?

In Jewish practice, brachot/blessings give us the language to express joy and gratitude.  Brachot also function as the spiritual technology for lifting experiences, mundane as well as sublime  experiences, into elevated moments of consciousness and wonder.  Particular experiences are assigned their particular blessings to root us where we are, directly linked with the action we …

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