Tag Archives: modern Judaism

Kohenet Shacharit prepared by Kohenet Annie Matan Gilbert

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amgWednesday morning, at our weekly Creative Shacharit, I led a Kohenet style davenning. This means that the liturgy of the service follows the arc of a traditional shacharit service but is often not traditional liturgy. This particular service is compiled from chants and prayers from the Kohenet siddur and from my own writing and repertoire. The language plays with gender of God/Goddess and also with the gender of the community both in the Hebrew and the English. It also includes some earth-based imagery.

 

This week, we sang together and shared blessings and I did my best to interweave kavanot for each prayer that led us on a journey through shacharit and into our day.

 

I share this here so others might choose to use this liturgy in their own davenning. I encourage you to choose from these or any other prayers that open your heart and mind to possibilities in your relationship with God and in the way the Jewish community is identified. I like these prayers because they feel like my own language. Maybe you will find some here that feel like yours – or maybe these will inspire you to search elsewhere.

 

In any language, may we all be blessed to enjoy and be inspired on the journey to the prayers of our hearts.

 

GRATITUDE

1. Modah Ani

מֹודָה/מֹודֶה אֲנִי לְפָנַיְִך רּוחַ חַיָה וְקַיֶמֶת

 

Modah/modeh ani lefanayich ruach chai vekayemet

 

O I am grateful, o I am grateful in the face of the One, in the face of the One

 

Lyrics and music by Holly Taya Shere

 

2. Elohai Neshama

 

Oh Hashem,
Cleanse my body
Cleanse my spirit
Make me whole
Guide my breath
All through my body
I feel your spirit
Deep in my soul		 Oh Shechina,
Cleanse my body
cleanse my spirit
Make me whole
Guide my breath
All through my body
I feel your spirit
Deep in my soul

Words and melody by Cara Gevurah Silverberg

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Should our students be allowed to study Torah on an iPad?

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From my blog:

0

Should our students be allowed to study Torah on an iPad?
Does it change the Kedusha of the text?

For thousands of years Jewish tradition was rooted in the oral passing of history. In the first and second century when Yehuda HaNassi compiled the Mishna, he changed the future of Jewish education. I can see the riots and criticism he must have dealt with from the ‘traditionalists’ and others who thought he was lessening the importance of learning these sacred pieces of our religion. However much it changed when the Mishna was compiled, the move towards Continue reading →

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Why I am Making Aliyah

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April 15th, 2013

It’s Erev Yom HaAtzma’ut and just a few days ago I had my first meeting with Nefesh b’Nefesh, an agency that works for North American Jews intending on immigrating to Israel. My application is in, and a few more papers are needed, but the decision has been made. I am making Aliyah to the State of Israel.

I have been grappling with this decision for a long time. My family lives very far away, but even farther away from following any sort of path that vaguely resembles my own. My decision feels like signing a contract of fate: to always being distant from them. It doesn’t mean that I will literally be cut off, nor are they disavowing their filial connection or love for me. But I am ensuring that my parents will never have a close relationship with their grandchildren, my brother’s children will never be regular playmates of mine and I may not always be able to afford to come and see them every year. I am hurting us both. I take it all very seriously. Even the concept of this sacrifice has quite frankly been too much for me to bare in the last few months I have been chewing on the decision. In order to become part of my greater Jewish family, I must Continue reading →

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‘These Are Moments’ Poem

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These Are Moments
Written by Andrew Lustig (Year '11-'12)

these are moments.
of clarity and insight. of sitting and talking and laughing and learning. dancing in circles. not afraid.
moments that are made by songs and psalms and stories of what we are and deciding what we can be.
these
are moments.
rarely where you expect to find them.
we’re outside of the box
meets
outside your comfort zone
meets
i can’t believe i’m finally here…
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A Peek into the Black and White World

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From my blog:

I have Haredi cousins.

I did not know this until last Friday night, enjoying couch-conversation with one of said cousins before Shabbat dinner.

So many different types of Jews...

So many different types of Jews…

“So what do people in this neighborhood call themselves?” I asked, wondering (after seeing all the black hats and streimels) which sect of Ultra-Orthodoxy I had resigned myself to for Shabbat.

“Mostly Haredi,” she replied. “Some Hassidish and Chabad, but most people are Haredi.” She paused, then added, “I’m Haredi.”

What is “Haredi”? According to the Oxford University Press, Haredi is defined as: “a member of any of various Orthodox Jewish sects characterized by strict adherence to the traditional form of Jewish law and rejection of modern secular culture.” Therefore, I was very surprised to find out that my cousin works for Continue reading →

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[Alumni Guest Post] Thank You, God, For Life and Babies

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Posted by Carrie Bornstein (Year '06)
on the Mayyim Hayyim blog:

Ima and EllieMy five-year old has been asking for a while if she can go swimming where I work. She loves Mayyim Hayyim, which is probably not entirely unrelated to the never-ending supply of animal crackers and pretzels. In the past few months her requests have gotten more frequent. So I engaged her in the conversation.

“It’s not really swimming, you know, like in the summer, just for fun. Usually there’s a reason that people come – like a big deal thing that’s going on in a person’s life that they want to mark in some way.”

“I know,” she said immediately. “I can go because we’re having a new baby!”

Well, look at that, I thought. She gets it. I let her know that, in fact, lots of people immerse when they’re expecting a baby, and that becoming a big sister for the second time, or a “double big sister” as we call it, is a really big deal.

The two of us visited a few weeks ago. On the ride there I explained a little more Continue reading →

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[Alumni Guest Post] Derekh Eretz by Kim Phillips

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Kim Phillips (Summer '06) is a marketing professional,
artist, writer and teacher in Nashville, Tennessee.

kpOne Shabbat morning, the rabbi entered Torah study and, instead of launching into the text, looked intensely around the circle of people gathered there. “I want to know how you feel about Israel,” she said. “However you feel is fine, but you have to say.” When it became clear that we would be expected to speak in turn, I started to sweat. I had only converted to Judaism weeks before, and the ground underneath my feet had not stopped shifting.

Jews are generally expected to support Israel, but we’re not often asked to declare our exact positions publicly. In fact, many born Jews are not pinned down on the subject and asked to pledge loyalty to Israel the way converts are. I have always-Jewish friends whose opinions about the place range from “Meh” to hard-right Zionism.

To the rabbi’s question, I answered that I didn’t feel qualified to comment, as I had not yet set foot in Israel. That may seem like a dodge, but it was true and it planted the seed in me, the desire to go to Eretz Yisrael. I continued my Jewish studies, became a Hebrew teacher and Continue reading →

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Review of ‘Relics for the Present: Contemporary Reflections on the Talmud’ by Levi Cooper

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Think of it as divrei Torah for the Talmud. Rabbi Dr. Levi Cooper’s Relics for the Present is an innovative, insightful, and thoroughly practical look at Mesechet Brachot that is sure to provide inspiration for Talmudic newcomers as much as long-time scholars. Whether read cover-to-cover or piecemeal, whether you’ve ever studied Tractate Brachot, or any other part of the Talmud, you are sure to have no trouble finding meaning in this book. Moreover, for beginner students especially, Relics can serve as the perfect introduction to the personalities of the Talmud and of it’s many commentators.

While in the Preface, Rabbi Cooper says he published his book on Tractate Brachot to coincide with the renewal of the Daf Yomi, or daily Talmud cycle,there seems to be more to the selection than this. If Tractate Brachot and its placement as the introductory section of the Talmud teaches us anything, it’s that the importance and problematics of Jewish prayer has not changed in the last 2,000 years. As such, Relics provides a refreshing modern voice in the ongoing Jewish conversation on how best to converse with God that should prove meaningful to Jews of all stripes. Continue reading →

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[PCJE Dvar Torah] Parshat Vayikra by Lauren Schuchart

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In this week’s Torah portion, we move from the exciting and relatable narrative in the books of Bereshit (Genesis) and Shmot (Exodus), into the legalistic and methodical book of Vayikra (Leviticus).

saIn the first Torah portion, God tells Moses how the Children of Israel should go about establishing a holy community, a “kingdom of priests.” In doing so, it offends the modern sensibilities of many of us, explaining in vivid detail how the newly freed Jewish people should serve God through animal sacrifices:

“And Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall offer the blood, dashing the blood against all sides of the altar.” Gross.

“The burnt offering shall be flayed and cut up into sections.” Ugh.

“The priest shall bring it to the altar, pinch off its head, and turn it into smoke on the altar; and its blood shall be drained out against the side of the altar.” I can’t even. Stop.

Lucky for me (and my wishy-washy vegetarian ideals), the Jewish practice of animal sacrifice stopped at the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE). So if animal sacrifices are no longer a part of religious devotion, what relevancy does this Torah portion have for us today? Continue reading →

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[Alumni Guest Post] Who is Allowed to Study Torah?

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Ben Barer (Fall '11, Fellows '12) shares his thoughts
on MK Ruth Calderon's inaugural Knesset speech:

rc

I had never watched an inaugural Knesset (Israeli Parliament) speech before Dr. Calderon’s (Hebrew; English). However, I, and many in the Jewish world, watched new MK Ruth Calderon’s speech with interest. A member of the rising Yesh Atid (There Is a Future) party, Calderon had already made a name for herself as a secular Israeli who was deeply interested in — and, after receiving a PhD in Talmud from Hebrew University, qualified to teach — Jewish texts. While much of the reaction to her speech has been positive, not all segments of the Jewish world are happy about the symbol of a secular women teaching Talmud (as Calderon did during her speech) at the Kneesset. This article is quite critical, citing various halakhic sources to show that only the traditionally observant ought to have access to canonical Jewish texts.

I understand the sentiment behind this backlash, though I am harshly critical of it. In a world where halacha reigns supreme, many modern sensibilities are seen as threatening. Canonical Jewish texts, on this view, are not literature to be studied by just anyone, but sacred texts that cannot be approached merely for intellectual study, but must be approached with Continue reading →

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