On a beautiful fall day in October, which happened to also be Sukkot eve, members and friends of Temple Beth Abraham joined together to experience a science fair connected to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Sukkot is a harvest holiday, and as one it leads itself naturally to think about elements such as sunlight, water Continue Reading »
In mid-October, TBA member Stefanie Wieder offered a training for area educators along with a team of professionals on the topic of Anti Bias in children’s literature. The training was co-sponsored by TBA and was well attended by a variety of library and school professionals from around NH. You can watch the recorded training here Continue Reading »
First day: Help Me Talk About What I’ve Been Through and Who I Am Second day: Right-ology: How to Be Right Better in the New Year Join us for conversation about these (and any other High Holy Day-related topic you like!) at 2:30 pm on Yom Kippur afternoon, in the tent or on Zoom!
This is my own selection of past sermons from Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, that I think are either timeless or timely again this year. Perhaps one or more might be good reading in preparation for the new year! Hope In An Uncertain World (5777/2016) What the Chanukkah dreidel can teach us about four kinds Continue Reading »
This is based on what I said on Shabbat morning, August 27, 2022 at the start of the month of Elul. It was the day of a Bar Mitzvah and an aufruf (blessing to a couple about to get married)! Usually I think of Elul as a time of introspection before we get together in Continue Reading »
Rabbi Jon’s D’var Torah from July 30, 2022 * 2 Av 5782 One of my favorite anecdotes about morning davvening (praying) comes from the Babylonian Talmud. Rabbi Chanina went to shul one day. This was some 1700 years ago, give or take, and at the time there were no siddurim (written prayerbooks). People who led knew the Continue Reading »
Rabbi Jon’s Dvar Torah from Shabbat morning, July 23, 2022. “It’s not a movement if everyone’s just sitting.” That’s a line from a conversation between then-Professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her 15-year-old daughter Jane in the film On the Basis of Sex, which is partly the story of how RBG, zichrona livracha, came to win Continue Reading »
Beth Abraham welcomes Rebecca White to our leadership team! Rebecca began in June as our Communications and Office Manager. She joins Rabbi Jon Spira-Savett and Sarit Tsor Ferreira, Director of Education and Community Engagement. Rebecca has worked in some of the Boston area’s most interesting and creative Jewish organizations: Gann Academy, Mayyim Hayyim Community Mikveh Continue Reading »
My words in the synagogue on the Shabbat before Independence Day 2022. Published also on my blog in the Times of Israel. This week, I printed out a copy of the declaration of intent to become a United States citizen made by my great-grandfather, Wolf Landsman, in the city court of Utica, New York. My sister Continue Reading »
This was the D’var Torah I gave for Parashat B’haalotcha on June 18, 2022. When the same passage of Torah comes at you from four different sources the same week, you have to pay attention. I always look forward to Parashat B’haalotcha because it’s the start of the frisky Torah, the Torah of complaining. It’s the beginning of the Continue Reading »