Elul 17: Awake

August 28, 2018

Awake the trumpet’s lofty sound! The joyful sacred festival comes round, When Dagon king of all the earth is crown’d. (from Samson by Georg Friedrich Händel) I know…I know. It’s probably a special sort of blasphemy to select a secular composition that speaks of a Philistine god as a piece of music that rouses my […]

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Elul 16: Pray

August 27, 2018

I love to pray. And I find that having a regular, daily prayer practice keeps me aware of God’s Presence in my life. But my favourite prayer time is neither in a synagogue nor part of the daily required prayers. It’s when I put my children to sleep. Only the youngest of my three still […]

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Elul 15: Plan

August 26, 2018

I’m a planner. I always have been. And, as my kids know, I like to have a Plan B. Possibly a Plan C, etc. depending on the particular circumstances. I approach the High Holy Days with a plan as well. Or, should I say, several plans. I have a plan as a rabbi. Another plan […]

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Elul 14: Learn

August 24, 2018

[Posted just prior to the 14th of Elul as it is nearly Shabbat.] I read somewhere that one should go to sleep knowing more than she did when she woke up. (I wish I could remember who said that.) I feel so lucky to live at a time when all of the world’s knowledge is […]

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Elul 13: Remember

August 24, 2018

We’ve had so much rain here. Nearly every entrance into our neighbourhood is flooded. It’s an inconvenience, though, and not life-threatening. Some days You stretch an arc in the sky. It is, as R’ Shimshon Raphael Hirsch taught, a bond between heaven and earth. I see it and smile. I remember You, (though I have […]

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