A Statement on Israel
09/03/2014 02:30:32 PM
Friends,
This has been a very tough summer in so many ways, especially for our friends and family in Israel who themselves or their loved ones have been serving in the military, or having to go daily to the shelter or stairwells as the sirens warn of the perpetual rockets being launched by Hamas from Gaza. I have also become painfully aware of the sense of frustration and isolation that many of the Israelis...Read more...
Read more... A Bat Mitzvah to Remember - Tribal Blessings
07/14/2014 02:33:10 PM
I am delighted to say that all of the Bar and Bat Mitzvahs that we celebrate at Bonai Shalom are memorable and joyous We mark this rite of passage for a young person and celebrate the amazing achievement of learning and preparing so much in order to stand in front of the congregation and take their place in the community. Most of our Bnei Mitzvah read Torah, Haftarah (a selection from the Prophets), get called up to the...Read more...
Lila Crank's Bat Mitzvah Dvar Torah
07/13/2014 02:34:17 PM
Parshat Pinchas – July 12th, 2014, Bonai Shalom
by Lila Crank
Shabbat Shalom. I am so incredibly happy that all of you could be here on my special day and that I am here standing before you now as a woman. This is such a privilege especially because in places like Nigeria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, girls and women are treated with great disrespect. Some are shot at just because they...Read more...
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Read more... Sandy Cohn Eulogy
04/01/2014 02:39:24 PM
Sandy Cohn – Shulamit bat Pinchas v’Chaya z”l
2/12/47 – 4/1/14
Eulogy delivered by Rabbi Marc on 4/3/14 at Har HaShem
Sandy would have loved to see all of us here today, people gathered from all over the country, family and friends. So many people. People she has adored. But she would not have liked the fact that it is all about her; she would be deflecting the attention away from her and back...Read more...
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Read more... Happy Thanksgivukkah!
11/27/2013 02:42:20 PM
Friends,
According to some, it will be 7,500 years before Thanksgiving and Hanukkah coincide again as they do tonight and tomorrow!
There are, of course, similar themes to these two holidays and when they converge, I suppose our sense of gratitude and appreciation for all of the large and small miracles in our lives, and for the people we love and those we don’t even know increase exponentially!
It has been a hard...Read more...
Read more... After the Flood - A Prayer
09/18/2013 02:44:54 PM
By Marc Soloway, Congregation Bonai Shalom, Boulder, CO
Out of the depths of the flood waters we cry out to you El Shaddai, to say “dai — enough. It has been enough.”
Let the drowning earth dry out once again and show us the reassuring promise of your rainbow!
As we celebrate the joy of the gift of water and as we prepare to pray for rain, let us remember that when it is withheld, the...Read more...
Violence - 2nd Day Rosh HaShanah 5774
09/10/2013 02:46:00 PM
Back in April, I was invited by Father Ted Howard to participate in a discussion at St. John’s Episcopal Church on the theme of violence in scripture. A light subject as part of the Christian Holy week. Our religious texts have so much in them that is violent and yet we want to believe that the core message of our traditions is love and compassion. That night I discovered, of course, that some Christians believe that what...Read more...
Embracing Doubt - 1st Day Rosh HaShanah 5774
09/09/2013 02:46:08 PM
A few years ago, one Shabbat morning in Jerusalem, I was part of a very popular community called Shirah Chadashah and I found myself sitting behind two of the greatest contemporary Jewish thinkers, philosophers of the generation. Rabbi David Hartman, the influential, liberal Orthodox founder of the enlightened Hartman Center, who died earlier this year, and his son-in-law, philosophy professor, Moshe...Read more...
A Eulogy for Kathy Meals
05/01/2013 02:48:15 PM
Kathleen Ann Meals
Elianna Segulah bat Avraham v’Sarah z”l
8/27/50 – 4/29/13
“Cops and Jews”
“Aishet Chayil mi yimtzah, v’rachok mip’ni’nim michrah. A woman of valor. A strong woman, who can find her? Her worth is above rubies,” says the Book of Proverbs.” Who can find her? We found one in Kathy...Read more...
Read more... Turkey Talk
11/15/2011 02:50:46 PM
I was not brought up with Thanksgiving. Guy Fawkes night on November 5th, with bonfires and fireworks, yes, but Thanksgiving, no. In fact my first exposure to this very American holiday was when I was in Yeshiva in Jerusalem, where a group of American students enjoyed the opportunity to invite a Hungarian, South African and an Englishman (that would be me) to their festive gathering. There was a politically correct and insightful reenactment...Read more...
Read more... A Very Different Night
04/10/2010 03:15:18 PM
I have rarely experienced a more powerful gathering than the diverse group gathered together that different night in my living room. Two Christian pastors, one a dedicated activist working against the horrors of human trafficking, the other a Methodist deeply immersed in looking at the Jewishness of the historical Jesus; a very religious Muslim student intoxicated with God and fascinated by other religions; Rastafarian Qabbalists; a whimsical...Read more...
A Prayer for the People of Haiti
01/21/2010 03:15:23 PM
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